{"id":118585,"date":"2026-08-11T13:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T07:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=118585"},"modified":"2026-08-11T13:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T07:32:18","slug":"permanent-pictorial-cancellation-ppc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/permanent-pictorial-cancellation-ppc\/","title":{"rendered":"Permanent Pictorial Cancellation (PPC)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Permanent Pictorial Cancellation Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Permanent Pictorial Cancellation<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>postmark<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which <\/span><b>shows a replica\/photo\/design or a picture highlighting a tourist,<\/b> <b>religious, historical,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or an <\/span><b>important place or a living\/non-living thing.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PPCs <\/span><b>give wide publicity to many places<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of historical, cultural, and tourist interest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of the<\/span><b> accepted methods of cancellation at post offices.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>provided at the post offices, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which are <\/span><b>located near such significant places.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In PPC, the <\/span><b>replica\/photo\/design <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or a picture is <\/span><b>used as the cancellation seal.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the <\/span><b>regular features of the cancellation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>zip code, and date will be included<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the seal.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Unlike an ordinary cancellation <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">used to cancel postage stamps on a particular day, a <\/span><b>PPC is available<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for <\/span><b>use on a permanent basis <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">at a designated post office.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sender can have his mail sealed pictorially by postal staff by<\/span><b> placing an oral request, provided a proper number of stamps are affixed <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on the mail.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pictorial cancellation <\/span><b>can also be imprinted on postcards and inland letters.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Once the pictorial cancellation is made, no normal cancellation is needed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is of particular <\/span><b>interest to philatelists (stamp collectors) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">because it provides a distinctive and lasting postal marking associated with a specific subject or location.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Facts about Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>Hindu temple<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> dedicated to Lord Vishnu located in <\/span><b>Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name of the city of Thiruvananthapuram in Malayalam translates to \u201cThe City of Lord Ananta, \u201dreferring to the deity of Padmanabhaswamy Temple.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>earliest recorded <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mention of the temple is from the<\/span><b> 8th or 9th century CE, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">although the temple is likely older.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple was <\/span><b>built and rebuilt over the centuries, most recently by Martanda Varma, king of Travancore<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who in <\/span><b>1750 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">donated the kingdom to the deity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Architecture:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>blend of Kerala and <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/dravidian-style-of-temple-architecture\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dravidian styles<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of architecture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idol of Vishnu is in the Anantha shayanam posture, the eternal yogic rest posture on his serpent Adisheshan.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a <\/span><b>seven-tier-high gopuram<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is decorated with delicate designs and carvings.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Along with exquisite and intricate works on stone and bronze, the <\/span><b>interior <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the temple is adorned by <\/span><b>exquisite paintings and murals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 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).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>flag post <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the temple (dhwaja stamba) is covered with<\/span><b> gold-plated copper sheets <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and is about 80 ft high.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple has around<\/span><b> 3 million palm leaf manuscripts <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dating back to the <\/span><b>14th century <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CE.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Known as <\/span><b>Mathilakam records<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, they contain the <\/span><b>administrative and financial details<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the temple town and <\/span><b>Travancore kingdom s<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pread over six centuries.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In 2011 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the temple was the <\/span><b>subject of international news <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">when an<\/span><b> exploration of its vaults revealed a wealth of jewels,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> precious metals, and other <\/span><b>treasures<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also widely believed to be the <\/span><b>world\u2019s richest temple.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/states\/kerala\/2026\/Aug\/11\/premium-special-cover-in-honour-of-padmanabhaswamy-temple-released\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Permanent Pictorial Cancellation 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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":118531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9463],"class_list":["post-118585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-permanent-pictorial-cancellation","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118585"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118601,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118585\/revisions\/118601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}