Permanent Pictorial Cancellation:
The Department of Posts, Kerala Circle, released the permanent pictorial cancellation (PPC) and premium special cover to commemorate the religious, cultural, historical, and architectural significance of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple recently.
- Permanent Pictorial Cancellation (PPC) is a postmark, which shows a replica/photo/design or a picture highlighting a tourist, religious, historical, or an important place or a living/non-living thing.
- PPCs give wide publicity to many places of historical, cultural, and tourist interest.
- It is one of the accepted methods of cancellation at post offices.
- They are provided at the post offices, which are located near such significant places.
- In PPC, the replica/photo/design or a picture is used as the cancellation seal.
- However, the regular features of the cancellation, the zip code, and date will be included in the seal.
- Unlike an ordinary cancellation used to cancel postage stamps on a particular day, a PPC is available for use on a permanent basis at a designated post office.
- The sender can have his mail sealed pictorially by postal staff by placing an oral request, provided a proper number of stamps are affixed on the mail.
- The pictorial cancellation can also be imprinted on postcards and inland letters. Once the pictorial cancellation is made, no normal cancellation is needed.
- It is of particular interest to philatelists (stamp collectors) because it provides a distinctive and lasting postal marking associated with a specific subject or location.
- Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu located in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala.
- The name of the city of Thiruvananthapuram in Malayalam translates to “The City of Lord Ananta, ”referring to the deity of Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
- The earliest recorded mention of the temple is from the 8th or 9th century CE, although the temple is likely older.
- The temple was built and rebuilt over the centuries, most recently by Martanda Varma, king of Travancore, who in 1750 donated the kingdom to the deity.
- It is a blend of Kerala and Dravidian styles of architecture.
- The idol of Vishnu is in the Anantha shayanam posture, the eternal yogic rest posture on his serpent Adisheshan.
- It has a seven-tier-high gopuram, which is decorated with delicate designs and carvings.
- Along with exquisite and intricate works on stone and bronze, the interior of the temple is adorned by exquisite paintings and murals, most of which are life-sized depictions of Lord Vishnu in the reclining posture, Lord Ganapati, Gaja Lakshmi, and Narasimha Swamy (half-lion, half-man incarnation of Lord Vishnu).
- The flag post of the temple (dhwaja stamba) is covered with gold-plated copper sheets and is about 80 ft high.
- The temple has around 3 million palm leaf manuscripts dating back to the 14th century
- Known as Mathilakam records, they contain the administrative and financial details of the temple town and Travancore kingdom spread over six centuries.
- In 2011 the temple was the subject of international news when an exploration of its vaults revealed a wealth of jewels, precious metals, and other treasures.
- It is also widely believed to be the world’s richest temple.
