Many extant pieces of Sangam Tamil literature and poetry as well as later works of the 9th century of Tamil poet-saints like Nammalwar refer to the temple and the city as having walls of pure gold.

Many conventional historians and scholars are of the opinion that one of the names that the Temple had, 'The Golden Temple', literally was in cognizance of the fact that the Temple was already unimaginably wealthy by that point. The Temple has been referred to in the (only recorded) Sangam period of literature several times. Several extant Hindu Texts like the Vishnu Purana, Brahma Purana, Matsya Purana, Varaha Purana, Skanda Purana, Padma Purana, Vayu Purana, Bhagavata Purana etc. The titular Maharaja of Travancore, Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, is the current trustee of the temple. Padmanabhaswamy is the tutelary deity of the royal family of Travancore. The principal deity Padmanabhaswamy ( Vishnu) is enshrined in the 'Anantha Shayana' posture, the eternal yogic sleep on the infinite serpent Adi Shesha. While the Ananthapura temple in Kumbla in Kasaragod district in Kerala is considered as the original spiritual seat of the deity ('Moolasthanam'), architecturally to some extent, the temple is a replica of the Adikesava Perumal temple in Thiruvattar in Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. The temple is built in an intricate fusion of the Chera style and Dravidian style of architecture, featuring high walls, and a 16th-century gopura. The name of the city of 'Thiruvananthapuram' in Tamil and Malayalam translates to 'The City of Lord Ananta', (The City Of Lord Vishnu) referring to the main deity of the temple. The Shree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple located in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the state Kerala, India.

Sai baba shirdi statue