Thoonilla Kottaram
The Story of Thoonilla Kottaram at Shanghumugham
At Shanghumugham, where the sea has silently witnessed the changing fortunes of Thiruvananthapuram, stands an old building with a history as unusual as its name. Thoonilla Kottaram, literally the “Palace Without Pillars”, was never built as a sports facility. Yet, more than a century after its early royal associations, it has become part of Kerala’s sporting infrastructure as an indoor arena.
Its journey from a royal-era building to a sporting venue reflects, in a small but fascinating way, the changing character of Kerala itself. The heritage inventory of the Government of Kerala describes Thoonilla Kottaram as a structure more than a century old, built in the colonial architectural style with laterite and mortar. Its original purpose was ceremonial. It was used for "Neettukodukkal", the conferring of honours on Europeans and others. At a later period, the building served as a museum of the Travancore Royal Family. Much later, it entered an entirely different chapter of its history when it was adapted for sport and eventually came under the Kerala State Sports Council as an indoor stadium.
The building’s early connection with the Travancore royal family provides the story’s first sporting link, although that connection is preserved largely through oral history. Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, who ruled Travancore from 1885 to 1924, was closely associated with Shanghumugham during the final years of his life. According to the late Balagopalan Thampi, a veteran badminton coach who later became closely associated with the indoor hall and whom the author interviewed, the Maharaja regularly took his morning walk in the area during the 1920s.
There is also a recollection that Sree Moolam Thirunal played tennis in the evenings. The location of the court, however, has not yet been established, and it would be premature to connect it directly with Thoonilla Kottaram. His personal interest in tennis should also be distinguished from any broader assessment of his contribution to organised sport during his reign. These aspects require further research.
The subsequent history of the building is less clearly documented. According to information available to the author, it was occupied for a period by a Travancore State Government office. During the middle decades of the twentieth century, the building acquired a new and very different identity.
The person who played the crucial role in this transformation was Lieutenant Colonel G. V. Raja, one of the most influential figures in the development of organised sport in Kerala. G. V. Raja travelled abroad frequently. During one of these visits, he is said to have seen an indoor sporting facility in Europe. The experience appears to have impressed upon him the possibilities of creating a similar sporting space in Travancore. According to His Highness Chembrol Raja Raja Varma, G. V. Raja’s son-in-law, whom the author interviewed, this experience prompted Raja to renovate the old hall at Shanghumugham and adapt it for sporting use. Raja Varma could not recall the particular tour, country or year, and these details therefore remain unidentified.
This is an important detail in the history of the building. The intention was not initially to construct a modern indoor stadium in the sense in which the term is understood today. Rather, an existing structure was given a new purpose and transformed into an indoor sporting arena.
By the 1950s, the hall had become associated with shuttlecock badminton, providing something Kerala’s open sporting grounds could not: an enclosed space where players could practise and receive coaching without being at the mercy of the weather. Its emergence coincided with a period when the sport was developing a stronger competitive base in the state, turning the hall into a place where young players could learn the game and experienced ones could continue their practice. The royal connection had not entirely disappeared either.
When Balagopalan Thampi began his coaching career in 1957, his first assignment was at the indoor hall at Shanghumugham. He had undergone specialised training in shuttlecock coaching at Thiruvananthapuram and subsequently worked at the hall as a volunteer coach and coordinator.
His recollections provide a glimpse of the venue’s sporting life during those early years. Practice sessions were arranged not only for young players but also for senior men and women of the Royal Family and senior Government officials who played there. The hall thus stood at an interesting point of transition: it retained a connection with the old royal sporting world while becoming part of the emerging culture of organised coaching and competitive sport.
But the significance of Thoonilla Kottaram lies beyond the career of any one coach or player. The building represented a new idea in Kerala’s sporting landscape, the possibility of adapting an existing space to create an indoor facility at a time when such venues were scarce.
Over the years, the hall’s sporting role expanded and became more firmly institutionalised. It eventually came under the Kerala State Sports Council and developed into the Indoor Recreation Centre at Shanghumugham. By the early twenty-first century, the facility was being upgraded to meet the requirements of tournaments and sports camps. A 2011 report on the proposed renovation referred to improvements to the roof and flooring and plans to make the centre more suitable for major sporting events and training camps.
The venue later became associated with the name of G. V. Raja, commemorating the man whose vision had helped give the old building its sporting life.
Its importance was demonstrated on an even larger stage when Kerala hosted the 35th National Games in 2015. Shanghumugham became one of the venues of the national sporting festival, with the men’s and women’s beach handball competitions held at Shanghumugham Beach. The beach, which had once formed part of the landscape of the Travancore royal household, had now become a stage for athletes from across India. The contrast could hardly have been greater.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, Shanghumugham was associated with the Maharaja and the world of Travancore royalty. In the decades that followed, the old hall acquired a new life through sport. Shuttlecock badminton gave it an early sporting identity; coaching and practice brought a new generation into its space; and institutional development eventually transformed it into a professional indoor sporting facility.
The story of Thoonilla Kottaram is therefore not simply the story of an old building that became a sports hall. It is a story of adaptation and continuity. A structure created for a royal world survived the disappearance of that world by finding another purpose. The ceremonial hall became an indoor court; the court became a training and competition centre; and the sporting venue eventually became part of Kerala’s modern sports infrastructure.
Its history also reminds us that sporting heritage is not always found in purpose-built stadiums. Sometimes it survives in buildings created for entirely different reasons and later given a new meaning. At Shanghumugham, a royal-era building found such a second life. Thoonilla Kottaram stands today as a physical link between the sporting world of Travancore and the organised, competitive sports culture of modern Kerala.
References
- Government of Kerala, heritage inventory entry on Thoonilla Kottaram.
- Interview with His Highness Chembrol Raja Raja Varma, son-in-law of Lieutenant Colonel G. V. Raja.
- Oral recollections of the late Balagopalan Thampi, veteran shuttlecock badminton coach.
- Official records and reports relating to the 35th National Games, Kerala, 2015.
Coming up next: SUNDAY FIELD & FLAME – 20th September 2026 : FROM BARRACKS TO PLAYING FIELDS: The Travancore Forces and the Military Roots of Organised Sport in Thiruvananthapuram
