The Supreme Court of India is now trying to decide the fate of the enormous wealth stored in the basements of a Vishnu temple in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. We are talking about treasures, whose value, according to the most conservative estimates, is $ 22 billion. On the one hand, they are claimed by the descendants of the rajas, who have accumulated gold and precious stones for centuries. On the other, there are Hindu believers and the temple ministers' union. Meanwhile, the price of the issue could jump significantly higher, since not all temple vaults have been opened yet, and the total value of the treasures located there is probably equal to a trillion dollars.
Stars in the dark
“When the granite slab was pushed aside, almost absolute darkness reigned behind it - it was diluted only by a dim ray of light from the doorway. I looked into the blackness of the pantry, and an amazing sight opened up to me: as if the stars twinkled in the sky on a moonless night. Diamonds and other precious stones flashed, reflecting the faint light coming from the open door. Most of the treasures were stacked in wooden chests, but over time the tree turned to dust. Gems and gold just lay in heaps on the dusty floor. I have never seen anything like it."
This is how the treasures of the Padmanabhaswamy temple were described by one of the members of the special commission appointed by the Supreme Court of India to inspect the treasury - kallara, in which the rajahs of Travankor, an ancient principality in the territory of the present state of Kerala, have stored their wealth for centuries. In the presence of the descendant of the rajahs, one of the vaults was opened to make sure that the ancient legends about the countless riches of the princely family do not lie.
Padmanabhaswamy is now guarded around the clock by 200 police officers. All approaches to the temple are monitored by surveillance cameras, metal detector frames are installed at the entrance, and machine gunners are located at key positions. These measures do not look redundant: although the members of the commission have undertaken to keep the complete list of the found treasures a secret, it is, at the most conservative estimates, about values slightly exceeding the budget of Croatia. Among the most notable solid gold exhibits are a full-size throne studded with hundreds of diamonds and other precious stones, 800 kilograms of coins, a chain five and a half meters long and a golden sheaf weighing more than half a ton.
Padmanabhaswamy temple
Promotional video:
Image Credit Flickr Ankur P
Photo: srirangaminfo.com
Photo: srirangaminfo.com
The rest of the vaults have not yet been opened. They may contain trillions of dollars worth of treasures - more than the military budgets of the United States, China and Russia combined.
Cobras and Minor Gods
The principality of Travankor in southern India was founded in 1729, but the Padmanabhaswamy temple is much older. Its current building was built in the 16th century. The sanctuary at this place, as historians assure, was long before that. In ancient Tamil texts, it was called the Golden Temple, since according to legend, the walls of the sanctuary were made of pure gold. For centuries people have carried offerings to the god Vishnu there. After the founding of Travancore, a stream of jewels literally poured into the temple: the fearless rajahs won many victories over their neighbors, appropriating their treasures, and even defeated the Dutch East India Company. The state flourished, trade grew stronger, money flowed like a river.
Merchants returning from successful travels left generous offerings at Padmanabhaswamy, the main temple of Travankor. Many treasures fell to the temple from the rajahs themselves: according to custom, the heir to the throne, upon reaching adulthood, donated gold to the temple as much as he weighed himself. In British times, Travancore became an indigenous principality, its rulers were in good standing with the British and enjoyed numerous privileges, continuing to grow rich. The treasures of the temple were safe: although the kallars were guarded by only a few people with wooden sticks, everyone in Travancore knew that Padmanabhaswamy's cellars were teeming with poisonous cobras, whose images were carved on the doors for the edification of thieves.
Gate with cobras guarding the entrance to the treasury
Photo: amazingbharat.com
Temple in 1890
Photo: Public Domain / Wikimedia
In 1946, before the British left India, the rulers of Travancore recalled their former glory by refusing to join India and Pakistan. "Travancor will become an independent state," announced the representative of the principality. "We see no reason why we should have less sovereignty than Denmark, Switzerland or Siam." It was only with great difficulty that the Travankor people were persuaded to join India, but in return the princely family demanded many privileges for themselves, including the title of the keeper of the Padmanabhaswamy temple.
The fact is that, according to Indian laws, the deities to whom the temple is dedicated can own the gifts presented to them and the land plots at the sanctuary. At the same time, the gods are legally equated with minors, and therefore, they are entitled to a guardian - he is the keeper of the temple and all its treasures. It was this post that the Rajas of Travancore received. Soon rumors spread: evil tongues said that the rajahs, who had lost their other income, no-no, and even put their hand into the temple riches.
Ananda Padmanabhan's War
Two people changed everything. The house of Ananda Padmanabhan, a lawyer from Thiruvananthapuram, stands on the street leading to the temple, and from childhood he heard all the rumors and gossip about the dishonest former Rajas of Travancor. His uncle Sundararajan, a devout Hindu believer, did not care about earthly riches - only the service of the gods. Over the years, Padmanabhan, under the influence of his uncle, plunged into religion and decided to devote his life to the god Vishnu.
In 2007, he filed a lawsuit against the head of the Travankor rajah family, 86-year-old Marthanda Varma, claiming that he was not coping well with the duties of a guardian and that Vishnu lost a lot of his wealth because of them. The lawyer estimates that more than a billion rupees ($ 15 million) have disappeared from the temple in total over the past decades. “They didn't even keep normal records,” the lawyer said indignantly. "The royal family lied, claiming that the treasure was never opened, but scraps of records show that it was opened at least seven times." The deity, Padmanabhan declared, needed a new guardian.
Padmanabhana was unexpectedly supported by the temple ministers' union. Its leader, in particular, said: “A lot of things have disappeared in recent years. An ivory flute was kept in the temple; it was many centuries old. I saw her once, but since then no one has found her. A bunch of treasures were simply stolen. Soon one of the union activists, Padmanabhu Das, was doused with acid by unknown persons, he survived literally by a miracle.
An investigation by India's Auditor General Vinod Rai confirmed the testimony of Padmanabhan and union members. The 1,000-page summary document listed the jewels missing from the temple, and the list, the document says, is incomplete.
Descendants of Former Kings
During the trial, an elderly descendant of Raja Marthand Varma died, and his nephew, a small businessman, Mulam Tirunal Rama Varma, took his place. He, like his uncle, categorically denies all charges. The interests of the former rulers are defended in court by a whole team of professional lawyers.
Believers on the steps of Padmanabhaswamy
Photo: Aijaz Rahi / AP
The Rajas of Travancore have owned the temple for centuries, resembles protection, and had a special relationship with the god Vishnu: for example, kings from century to century accompanied his idol during the solemn ablution in the sea twice a year and even asked him for permission if it was necessary to leave the city. No earthly law can change this sacred bond. Any accusations of embezzlement are generally ridiculous: records show that the late Marthanda repeatedly contributed money to cover the temple budget deficit.
On the side of the rajahs, there is a tremendous influence, which they still enjoy in the state of Kerala, where they are sometimes called kings out of habit. If necessary, the former rulers of Travancore easily organize campaigns in their support.
“The royal family considers the temple and the treasures in it their own,” complains Padmanabhan. “But in 1972, the government deprived them, like other rulers, of all privileges and income. A personal exception was made only for those who were the rulers at the time of independence, but the last true Raja of Travancore died in 1991. Now my work is almost complete - I just wanted the treasures to be properly counted and described, and then let the court decide."
Need more gold
Another player invisibly looms over this battle - the federal government. India is in desperate need of gold: annually, in order to meet the demand of the jewelry industry, it is necessary to import about a thousand tons at a huge cost. And in Hindu temples throughout the country, according to the head of the Indian Ministry of Finance, Arun Jatli, more than three thousand tons of this precious metal are stored (the gold reserve of India, for comparison, is 550 tons).
The government of Narendra Modi launched a special program aimed at attracting gold to the economy. Temples are encouraged to invest treasures in banks, at guaranteed interest. The gold itself is offered to be melted and sold to jewelers. Thus, the temples will receive a permanent source of income and help the economy.
This has already caused a sharp discontent among Hindu organizations, to the opinion of which the Modi government is forced to listen. Traditionalists remind that gold belongs to the gods, not to the government, and you should not spoil your karma by taking from them the gifts offered by the believers.
However, not everyone among Hindus thinks so. As one of the Hindu businessmen noted, "using temple gold to build a state and strengthen the economy is also a plus to karma."
Countless diamonds in stone caves
Padmanabhaswamy is only one of the six hundred thousand Hindu temples in the country. The treasures in them are not counted; those three thousand tons of gold that Jatli mentioned is only the first estimate, because there are also precious stones and silver.
Moreover, treasures in India are stored not only in temples: a few months ago, a real gold rush broke out in the state of Rajasthan after local peasants found thousands of gold coins from the time of the Gupta empire in an abandoned quarry for the extraction of stone. Throughout India, there are legends about countless treasures and riches lying underground or at the bottom of rivers and lakes, and finds now and then confirm these rumors.
Alexey Kupriyanov
