At the beginning of the 18th century, the principality of Travancor was formed in the south-west of the Indian subcontinent. For many centuries, busy trade routes passed through its territory. European traders of pepper, cloves and cinnamon appeared here in the 16th century, after the caravels of the Portuguese Vasco da Gama sailed here in 1498.
Foreign and Indian merchants who came to Travancor for spices and other goods usually left generous offerings to the god Vishnu in order to receive a blessing for successful trade from higher powers and at the same time enlist the favor of the local authorities. In addition to donations, the temple stored gold received from European merchants in payment for spices.
In 1731, one of the most powerful rulers of Travankor, Raja Marthanda Varma (he ruled in 1729-1758), in the capital city of Trivandrum (now called Thiruvananthapuram - the capital of the present Indian state of Kerala), the majestic Padmanabhaswamy temple was built.
Actually, one of the 108 monasteries of Vishnu has been here since the 3rd century BC. e., and in the XVI century the temple complex was located. In the same place, the Raja built a gopuram - the main seven-row tower of the temple, 30.5 m high. It is decorated with many statues and sculptures, each of which can be considered a real architectural masterpiece.
A long corridor with a colonnade of 365 beautiful granite columns leads inside the temple. Their surface is completely covered with carvings, which is an example of the true skill of ancient sculptors.
The main hall of the temple building is decorated with frescoes depicting various mystical stories, and is intended to store the main shrine: the unique statue of Padmanabhaswamy - the form of Vishnu, who is in the Anananthasayanam pose, that is, in an eternal mystical dream.
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The sculptural embodiment of the supreme god lies on the giant thousand-headed snake Ananta-Sheshe - the king of all nagas. From Vishnu's navel grows a lotus with Brahma sitting on it. The left hand of the statue is located above the lingam stone, which is considered the most important form and image of Shiva. Sitting next to him are his wives: the goddess of the Earth Bhudevi and the goddess of fortune Sridevi.
The 5.5 m high statue was built from 10,008 Shalagramashil (sacred stones) and covered with gold and precious stones. It can be seen from the three gates of the temple - through some you can see the feet, through others - the body, and through the third - the chest and face. For several hundred years, direct descendants of the Rajas of Travancore ruled the temple complex and were the trustees of Vishnu's earthly property.
However, a few years ago it turned out that both the majestic temple and the magnificent sculpture are only a visible part of Padmanabhaswamy's wealth. Moreover, an ancient curse hung over the province of Kerala.
The fact is that in 2009, the famous Indian lawyer Sundara Rajan wrote a petition to the Supreme Court of India: he demanded the opening of the storerooms of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple, which were sealed more than 130 years ago. The lawyer worried that without proper supervision and accounting, the treasures could simply be looted. Rajan, as a former police officer, pointed to the unacceptably poor security of the temple.
Local police officers confirmed his words: the Kerala police have neither the technical means nor the experience to protect such wealth. "We need to install laser alarms, video surveillance systems and other modern security systems, but we do not have them," the police officer said.
In February 2011, the court ruled that Sundar Rajan was right and ordered the state to establish proper control over the temple in order to ensure the necessary protection of the valuables stored in its storerooms. According to the court decision, the historical monument was transferred under the jurisdiction of the Kerala state government.
Of course, eighty-year-old Utradan Tirunaal Marthanda Varma, a descendant of Raja Travankor and a temple trustee, appealed to the Supreme Court. The aristocrat said that a special law passed after India gained independence gives him full authority to control the temple.
In addition, he insisted that the Rajas of Travancore had long been the priests of the god Vishnu, which gave them the right to manage the temple property. However, the Supreme Court disagreed with the arguments of the plaintiff and dismissed the appeal on the grounds that the rajahs in the 21st century no longer have a special legal status and are considered ordinary citizens of India.
Despite the wrath of believers, who believed that robbing the gods was not allowed to anyone, including the authorities, a special government commission executed the decision of the Supreme Court and opened the temple caches in order to take an inventory of valuables.
What was discovered inside the five secret underground rooms shocked the whole world: chests with about 1 ton of gold coins, 1 ton of gold bullion and jewelry, bags of diamonds and other precious stones.
In one of the vaults, they found crowns inlaid with emeralds and rubies, gold necklaces, a 5.5 m gold chain, a 36-kilogram gold "canvas", rare coins from different countries, as well as an amazing statue of the god Vishnu lying on the snake Ananta-Sheshe, made made of pure gold and having a height of 1.2 m.
According to preliminary data, the found treasures are estimated at almost a trillion Indian rupees, which is more than $ 20 billion in gold equivalent. This is more than the budget of the entire capital district of Delhi!
According to Indian archaeologists and researchers, they had no idea how impressive the found treasure would be. Naturally, the state government took unprecedented measures to ensure the safety of the treasure found. Most of the state police were brought in to guard them. In the church itself, a burglar alarm and surveillance cameras were urgently installed.
After that, the Hindus were seized by a real mania: grabbing metal detectors or armed with pure enthusiasm, crowds of "pilgrims" ran to the temples - what if there were such treasures somewhere else? Those who had never been distinguished by piety also rushed to the "houses of the gods".
Everyone knows that from ancient times the wealthy families of India generously donated jewels to the temples, moreover, there was a custom to hide the city treasury in the temples during wars and civil strife. But the sacred buildings in India have always been inviolable, and not all Hindus rushed in search of treasures - believers are horrified by the actions of "blasphemers" and argue that the gods will not forgive invading their homes.
At the same time, the intrigue around the Padmanabhaswamy temple continues to unfold. After all, only five treasuries were opened. After that, they were going to open the last of the six underground vaults, where, as it is believed, the most valuable part of the treasure is located.
However, the curses threatened by the priests of Vishnu stop the top officials of Kerala from taking decisive action. And the most striking example of the fact that it is unreasonable to dismiss the threats of the priests was the mysterious death of the initiator of the sacrilege.
Less than a week after the discovery of the treasures, seventy-year-old Sundar Rajan suddenly died, according to the official version, from a fever. A physically strong man, who had never before complained about his health, suddenly died, and the autopsy did not establish the exact cause of his death. Of course, many Indians did not believe the reports in the press and regarded his death as a punishment for Vishnu for disturbed sleep.
The descendant of the rulers of Travancore is not going to surrender either. He announced that he would fight for the inviolability of the last cache of treasures of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple. This cache was not opened simultaneously with five other rooms, since it was sealed with a special "sign of the serpent" that guards the rest of Vishnu. And it's not even about the treasures that are stored there.
There is a legend that in the room, sealed with the "sign of the serpent", is kept a kind of inviolable reserve of the Vishnu temple. It is forbidden to touch the gold and jewelry stored there.
Only in the most extreme case, when the fate of the principality and the people living in it is at stake, will the priests, after a special ceremony, be allowed to open the door to the treasury, which is guarded by a huge three-headed cobra with ruby eyes. Those who try to enter the dungeon without permission will face a terrible death.
They say that sometime at the end of the 19th century, the British, who then felt like complete masters in India, despite all the warnings of the rajah and the priests, decided to enter the forbidden treasury. But they failed to do this.
The daredevils who entered the dungeon with torches and lamps soon jumped out with wild cries. According to them, giant snakes pounced on them from the darkness. Neither sharp daggers nor shots were able to stop the enraged reptiles. Several people were bitten by poisonous creatures.
In terrible torment, the blasphemers who encroached on the treasures of Vishnu died in the arms of their comrades. No one else dared to repeat their attempt to get into the forbidden pantry.
So the cherished door has not yet been opened. One of the ministers of the temple even gave under oath testimony that it is impossible to open the "door with a snake" - this promises everyone innumerable troubles. The Supreme Court ruled that the last sealed vault will not be opened until local authorities guarantee the temple is safe and secure, and the treasure is properly valued and guarded, documented, filmed and professionally attributed. However, as the judges noted, this has not yet been done even for the wealth already found.
In the meantime, the chief judges are dealing with ancient spells, historians and the public are arguing who now owns the treasure and what to do with it. Vice-rector of the University. Mahatma Gandhi in Kerala Rajan Gurukkal is sure that regardless of whether this treasure was a princely or a temple treasure, it is a unique archaeological treasure that is several hundred years old.
"And any archaeological site belongs to the nation." Indeed, first of all, the temple treasure is of great value as a source of information about the society of medieval India and not only, since treasures, especially such large ones, can contain coins and jewelry accumulated over fairly long periods of time. Gurukkal is sure that the state should be engaged in the preservation of the found historical and cultural objects, and calls for sending the treasure to the national museum.
But the ex-head of the Council for Archaeological Research Narayanan told the press that the government, on the contrary, should not interfere - the fate of the treasure should be decided by the temple council. Otherwise, it will be an encroachment on private property.
Indian intellectuals, including former Indian Supreme Court Justice Krishna Iyer, propose using wealth for the good of society: 450 million people live below the poverty line in the country.
“Whether the treasures found are a punishment or a blessing for one of the poorest Indian states, time will tell. One thing can be said with certainty: for the authorities of the state of Kerala, money would definitely not be superfluous,”said the German weekly Der Spiegel.
At the same time, members of the Hindu communities insist on preserving the treasures in the same place, the article says. And one of them even threatened with an action of mass suicide if the valuables were taken out of the church. Angry Hindus argue that only the descendants of the maharajas, who guard the treasures of the temple, can decide what to do with them.
However, the head of government of Oommen Chandi state has already promised that all values will remain in the possession of the temple. He added that on this occasion, consultations are underway with the descendants of the rulers of Travancore and the chief priest of the temple.
On the other hand, many temples put their treasures in the bank (for example, the Tirumala Venkateswara temple, located in the east of the country, stores a third of its three tons of gold in the bank). Others are actively investing in education and culture, building schools.
Persons especially interested in the fate of the treasures, who were not at all surprised by what was found in the secret storerooms, are the princely family of Travancore.
“We are only surprised that we were so surprised,” Marthanada Varma said in an interview. “Everyone knew that our family was rich and had given gold to the temple for many centuries.” At the same time, the prince avoided answering the question whether his family was ready to transfer part of the found treasures to public needs: “All answers must be given by the Supreme Court. We are waiting for his decision."
In the meantime, the court is playing for time, the jewels are in ancient temples. Not taken into account by anyone, they are slowly being pulled apart, disappear. Often, artifacts are replaced by remakes, and the originals are deposited somewhere in private collections.
The only way to stop this is to place temple monuments and treasuries under the control of central authorities, many in India believe. Actually, this is what the lawyer and former policeman Sundara Rajan spoke about, who started the story with the opening of the temple caches and died either from a fever or from the wrath of Vishnu.