In God we trust
Sri Padmanabhaswamy's wealth must remain his own
No one still quite knows the final value of the gold, silver, jewelry and other valuable offerings locked up in the vaults of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. One estimate puts the value of whatever has been accessed so far at Rs five trillion. The government and the courts have quite correctly focused first on the safety and security of the discovered treasure. Nothing is more important right now than the assurance of foolproof security systems and total transparency in the organisational methods being employed to ensure proper accounting of the material found. Avoidable controversy can needlessly cast a shadow on what is very clearly a great discovery, an exhilarating find and a historic moment for the great temple, from whose deity the city in which it is housed derives its name. Historians believe that these treasures and offerings to the almighty might have been collected and placed in these vaults by the great Maharaja, Marthanda Varma. In 1750 Marthanda Varma virtually abdicated his throne and crown in favour of Lord Padmanabha, and declared himself a ‘Padmanabhadasa’ — a servant of the Lord. This meant that the deity of the temple ruled the kingdom. The wealth of the temple, therefore, belongs to the deity.
Secular Indian law recognises a deity as a legal entity. Hence, the wealth that has now been uncovered and whatever else lies hidden belongs to the temple and the deity. It is best to leave it that way. In the post-Independence period India’s secular state has got involved with temple administration through various religious endowment Acts in different parts of the country. To an extent this has helped the people. For example, the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam has been administered by an officer of the Indian Administrative Service and some of these officers have built a devotee-friendly infrastructure and ensured that temple money is used for social welfare and development. However, it is also a fact that several pundits and others associated with the temple have enriched themselves in the process. On the other hand, India is also littered with hundreds of ill-kept and ill-preserved temples due to lack of money and adequate administration. Since many of India’s ancient temples are the nation’s cultural inheritance, the government has an obligation to ensure their proper maintenance. Yet, given the fact that governments in India have shied away from taking a similar view of the maintenance and upkeep of places of historic value that are of religious significance to the minorities, the majority community can well ask why the State should get involved in the administration of its religious centres.
The Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple’s wealth belongs to the temple, even if in the ultimate analysis all such wealth belongs to the people. It would, however, be incorrect for any government to take charge of this wealth in the name of the people. Rather, what both government and public opinion should encourage is for the temple’s administrators to take a forward looking view and make a distinction between artefacts of historical, artistic and cultural importance and just gold, silver and jewelry. The former should be catalogued and placed in a well-guarded museum with all modern security infrastructure that can easily be built within the temple compound and is open to all visitors, and not just Hindus alone. The rest of the wealth can be placed in lockers and used as the collateral for useful investments by the trust in social welfare, health and education.