Introduction
In our Younger days - and that was some
fifty years ago - poor Brahmins who could not subsist themselves went to Trivandrum, the
capital of the princely State of Travancore. Children who became orphans, women who became
widows and destitute, all resorted to the temple of Lord Padmanabha, where thousands of
Brahmins received two free meals a day.
Indeed, thanks to the munificence of the then Maharajas of
Travancore, dozens of uttupuras, free feeding houses for Brahmins, were opened throughout
the state. But the foremost 'among them was in the Padmanabhaswami temple which enabled
many Brahmins to live free when they were getting an education or conducting a patty
trade.
Author - K.R. Vaidyanathan
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