Discovery of temple treasure worth Rs90,000 crore sparks debate on its preservation

When the erstwhile Maharaja of Travancore and carnatic music giant Swati Tirunal sang Padmanaabha tumharee leela, kya kahoon main savaro (I cannot but stand flabbergasted seeing your mischievous pranks, Oh! Lord Padmanabha!) in praise of the lord in a tillana, little did the world know that the supreme Hindu god had kept his mischief hidden — in the form of unimaginable wealth under the serpentine couch he reclined on.

That treasure trove, it has been revealed, is worth a mind-numbing Rs100,000 crore as of Sunday — and counting.

Thiruvananthapuram, where the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple stands as a silent observer of all that happens around, has overnight turned into the richest temple in India.

Padmanabha is the form of Vishnu in ‘ananta-sayanam’ or the eternal sleep of Yoga Nidra on the serpent Ananta.

That wealth dislodges yet another form of Vishnu — Lord Balaji — as India’s richest god. His temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh is estimated to be worth about Rs50,000 crore.

That apart, the coffers of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam get about Rs450 crore of offerings from devotees every year.

The stunning revelations in Thiruvananthapuram started trickling in after a seven-member Supreme Court-appointed panel began taking inventory of the royal family-maintained temple.

The process got kick-started after the Supreme Court ordered the stock taking of the temple’s hidden riches taking into account a writ petition filed by former Intelligence Bureau official and advocate TP Sundararajan alleging “mismanagement of the temple affairs”.

Though the event was seen as a normal judicial process in the beginning, things turned hotter when the lids to the six underground chambers (named A to F) on the temple premises started being opened.

The stock-taking process of four of the six chambers has now completed a week and the findings have revealed unimaginable riches.

With the media churning out fresh additions to the figures that elaborate on the worth of the wealth unearthed from the temple, one wonders how the evaluation is being conducted.
Sources at the temple said the evaluation process is done as per Supreme Court directives and that current day value of gold and diamonds have been applied for calculation.
But no one’s sure because there is no metric yet to assess the antique value of the booty. Of the six chambers, two are still to be opened.
The E chamber will be opened on Monday, following which the panel will submit an interim report on the findings. The remaining chamber B, which is being said to be the toughest one to be unearthed, will be opened only after a final nod from the Supreme Court is received.
This could as well mean that more treasure is to be unearthed from around 20 feet under. And, this also means that the next few days of scrutiny would throw up some amazing numbers in rupee terms.
The panel, which comprises a gemologist, has already unearthed a 4-ft idol of Lord Vishnu made in gold and studded with emeralds, and many such items of antique value.
Though official versions are still to come by, sources said the whole week has been gold and diamond-laden, with the SC team finding, precious stones, gold coins with the East India Company stamp on them, gold idols and statues, ornaments that were once used to deck up the main idol of Lord Anantha Padmanabha and much more.
“Gold necklaces as long as 15-18 ft, crowns studded with emeralds, rubies and diamonds, symbols of the Travancore royalty and the like have been taken stock of by the panel,” they added.
All chambers being so deep into the ground, stock taking has been a Herculean task for the panel. Assisted by Fire Force personnel and equipped with oxygen cylinders, the team’s effort could well be seen as a first-ever exercise of this magnitude.
The chambers are being opened after a gap of 70 years. Some haven’t been opened for more than a century.
A temple official said the treasure trove is an example of the foresight of the erstwhile rulers of Travancore, who never wanted the people of Travancore to be pushed to poverty or go homeless in case of a natural calamity.
He added that Sri Mulam Thirunal, the Maharaja who ruled the kingdom during 1885-1924 and then CP Ramaswamy Aiyer, the Dewan of Travancore during 1936-47 had earlier opened the chambers when famine devastated the state and distributed wealth so that the people never suffered.
It now remains to be seen what the Supreme Court’s next action would be. Will the treasure be handed over to the Kerala government as a state-owned property or will it be considered national treasure is anybody’s’ guess.