She lies on her side on a fluted shell at the northern end of Shanghumukham Beach, white, enormous, and entirely unbothered by being the most photographed object in Thiruvananthapuram.
In October 2022 Guinness World Records recognised the Sagarakanyaka — also called the Jalakanyaka or Matsya Kanyaka — as the largest merperson sculpture in the world. It is a genuine world record sitting on a municipal beach at the end of a runway, and almost nothing written about the beach mentions it.
How big is she, really?
About 87 feet long and 25 feet high — roughly 26.5 metres by 7.6. That is the figure to use, and it is not the figure in circulation.
What you will usually read is “35 metres”, and it is a unit error with a traceable path. One widely copied dimension pair renders the sculpture as 35 ft × 87 ft. Somewhere along the chain of copying, the 35 was promoted from feet to metres and moved from the height column to the length column, and the resulting figure — a mermaid the length of three buses — has been reproduced ever since. She is very large. She is not 35 metres of anything.
The completion year is genuinely unsettled: some sources say 1990, others 1992, and we have not found a document that decides it. What is not in dispute is the effect. At 87 feet she is not a statue in the ordinary sense — she is too long to be looked at from a single position. You walk the length of her, the way you walk the length of a wall or a jetty. That is a decision about form, not an accident of scale.
Built for nothing, and nearly stopped
The Sagarakanyaka was commissioned by the Government of Kerala, and Kunhiraman completed it without taking any remuneration. It also came close to not existing: a District Collector moved to halt construction, and the work continued only after the Chief Minister, K. Karunakaran, intervened to let it be finished.
So the largest sculpture of its kind anywhere was built for no fee by an artist who had to be rescued from a district administration. That is a better account of how public art actually gets made in India than any of the adjectives usually attached to it.
The sculptor’s method
Kanayi Kunhiraman, born 25 July 1937 in Kasaragod district, built a career on putting monumental work in places people were already going. Not galleries: a dam garden, a beach, a commercial complex, a boating park.
His breakthrough was the Yakshi at the Malampuzha dam garden in Palakkad, finished in 1969 — a 5.5-metre concrete nude drawn from the Malayalam folk figure of the yakshi, beautiful and lethal in equal measure, which attracted organised protest for its sensuality and has never entirely stopped. Four years later came the Mukkola Perumal in Kochi. In 1986 the Conch at Veli Tourist Village, a few kilometres up this same coast. In 1990, the Sagarakanyaka.
He headed the sculpture department at the College of Fine Arts in Thiruvananthapuram from 1976 and was its principal; he chaired the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi in 1978 and again in 2001, and later the national Lalit Kala Akademi. He received the Raja Ravi Varma Award in 2005, the year it was instituted, as its first sculptor recipient.
Living on an eroding beach
Putting a large concrete figure on a shoreline retreating at roughly 4.73 metres a year has consequences, and the Sagarakanyaka has had them. Sea surge has damaged her and she has been restored; the same surges took the old airport approach road, whose broken slabs are still lying in the sand nearby.
This is the honest thing about the sculpture that the postcards leave out. She is not a permanent monument on a stable site. She is a work of public art in an active erosion zone, kept there by repeated repair, and the question of how long that continues is a real one rather than a rhetorical flourish.
Looking at her properly
Walk round rather than photographing from the road. The form reads completely differently from the seaward side, where the shell rises against the water, than from the landward side where you see her against trees and parked cars.
And go at the end of the day. She is white concrete on an open beach; at noon she is a glare, and in the last half hour of light she is the reason people in this city are fond of her.
Frequently asked questions
Who made the Shanghumukham mermaid?
Kanayi Kunhiraman, in concrete, for the Government of Kerala — and without taking any fee. The work is called the Sagarakanyaka, also known as the Jalakanyaka or Matsya Kanyaka. Sources give the completion year as either 1990 or 1992.
How long is the Sagarakanyaka?
About 87 feet long and 25 feet high, or roughly 26.5 by 7.6 metres. The widely repeated figure of “35 metres” is a unit error: a commonly copied dimension pair gives 35 ft × 87 ft, and the 35 has been promoted from feet to metres and moved into the length column along the way.
Has the sculpture been damaged?
Yes, by sea surge, and it has been restored. Shanghumukham is an active erosion zone — shoreline reduction has been measured at around 4.73 metres a year — and the same surges destroyed the old airport approach road, whose remains lie in the sand nearby.
What else did Kanayi Kunhiraman make?
The Yakshi at Malampuzha dam garden (1969, 5.5 m, concrete), which drew organised protest for its sensuality; the Mukkola Perumal in Kochi (1973); and the Conch at Veli Tourist Village (1986), a few kilometres along this coast.
Is it really the largest mermaid sculpture in the world?
By Guinness World Records, yes — it was recognised in October 2022 as the largest merperson sculpture in the world.
When is the best time to see it?
Late afternoon into sunset. It is white concrete on an open beach, so the middle of the day is a glare; the last half hour of light is when it works, and when the city is there.
Can you climb on it?
People do, and the wear shows, but treat it as a sculpture rather than a climbing frame — it has already been damaged and repaired more than once because of the sea, and it does not need help.