SC panel begins to open royal treasure

The secret lockers at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala’s capital are believed to contain an enormous quantity of valuables

A treasure hunt began today in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, under the orders of the Supreme Court.

There are six underground lockers at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, considered one of the holiest shrines dedicated to Vishnu in South India (the modern structure dates back to the 16th century and the location, by belief, goes back to Puranic times). The temple was also the treasury-repository of the wealth of the erstwhile royal house of Tranvancore, which ruled in the name of the deity since 1750, when the then king, Marthanda Varma, declared himself and his descendants to be its servants. This position continued till 1947.

The six traditional lockers are believed to contain an enormous quantity of valuables — there is talk of about Rs 1,000 crore worth. Two of these have not been opened for 150 years and the other four have been closed since the 1950s. This has been due to certain legal issues connected to the administration of the temple, of which the head of the erstwhile royal family continues to be the official custodian. There are various matters in the high court.
 

SAI BABA’S TREASURE

In an unrelated development, the Sathya Sai Baba Central Trust on June 17 declared the value of cash and other valuables found in Yajurveda Mandiram, a private chamber of Sai Baba, who passed away two months ago. The total treasure discovered:

CASH
Rs 11.56cr

GOLD
98Kg

SILVER
307Kg

Recently, an advocate, T P Sundarrajan, petitioned the Supreme Court, asking that the lockers be opened under its legal supervision, in the national interest. Accordingly, earlier this year, the SC gave an order that this be done. It had appointed two former high court judges, C S Rajan and M N Krishnan, as observers. Responsibility for the job is with the state government’s additional chief secretary, K Jayakumar; director of archeology, J Rejikumar, and the temple’s executive officer, Harikumar. They began the task today with the smallest of the six lockers. Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the 89-year-old head of the erstwhile royal family (his elder brother, who expired in 1991, was the last king) and the present custodian, was present.

On the SC order, press reporters were kept away. It is reported that gold ornaments worth crores were taken out from the locker. The team decided to discuss the opening of the other lockers this Friday and fix the final programme. The two which hadn’t been opened for 150 years would, it is believed, have a huge quantity of precious stones and other jewellery.

The opening of the lockers is not easy, as there is only a narrow passage to the below-ground receptacles.

The temple’s main deity, Padmanabhaswamy, is a form of Vishnu in what is termed the Anananthasayanam posture, reclining on the divine serpent. The city of Thiruvananthapuram, meaning ‘the land of Anantha Padmanabhaswamy’, derives its name from this deity. The temple is located in what is called the East Fort locality of the city. As mentioned earlier, the deity was declared the official ruler of the kingdom by King Marthanda Varma in 1750, an act known as Thrippadi Danam (roughly, offering to the Lord). He and his decendants styled themselves as servants of Padmanabha, this being part of the royal title.