Reports in 'The Hindu', and accounts provided in a book, detail how at least one vault at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple was opened decades ago
Seventy-nine years ago, long before the latest discovery of phenomenal treasures in the Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, at least one of the several vaults of the temple had been opened and an inventory made of the precious objects found inside. The Hindu's correspondent, who witnessed the events, filed reports describing the scene and the finds.
On Sunday, December 6, 1931, around 10 a.m., at an auspicious time chosen by the temple officials, one of the vaults was opened. Following special religious rites, "the key was applied to the old and rusty locks." Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the Maharaja, himself was at hand. An ambulance waited outside to attend to any emergency. The locks failed to yield, and the doors were broken open after a two-and-a-half-hour struggle.
Floodlights and torches were used to light up the space inside, and electrical fans were switched on to ‘pump air in and out' of the cellar. The temple officials found four chests made of brass which contained old coins. Next to them was “a granary like thing,” full of gold and silver coins. Over that there were several gold pots. There was a wooden chest fixed to the ground, and it had six chambers. In it were jewels with diamonds, rubies, emerald and other precious stones. In addition, there were over 300 gold pots and four vancheds, or coffers.
The officials who got into the first cellar found that another one was behind it. It was believed, The Hindu report mentioned, that in all there were four cellars: Mahabarathakonathu kallara, Sree Pandarathu kallara, Vedavyanakonathu kallara and Sarswathikonathu kallara.
By 3.30 p.m., the operation was stopped and the vault sealed. The four vancheds were taken to the Chellavagai, or palace treasury, “for counting and valuation.” It is not clear from the reports if any of the remaining cellars were opened in the following days. The reasons for opening the vaults too were not elaborated.
However, Emily Gilchrist Hatch, who was in Trivandrum in 1933, offered an explanation in her book, Travancore: A guide book for the visitor (Oxford University Press, 1933). She not only recalled the 1931 opening of the vault, but also mentioned a similar but unsuccessful attempt that had been made in 1908.
Ms. Hatch, who in the preface to her book profusely thanked the Travancore government for all the “help and counsel” extended to her, recorded that the temple had a vast amount of wealth ‘lain in vaults.'
“About 25 years ago,” she wrote, “when the State needed additional money, it was thought expedient to open these chests and use the wealth they contained.” “A group of people” got together and attempted to enter the vaults with torches. When they found them “infested with cobras” they “fled for their lives.”
However, in 1931 the temple officials were better prepared with “electric lights and system of fans,” she observed.
The 1930s were difficult times. The princely state Travancore, like the rest of India, was facing an economic depression. Revenues had fallen and the prices of agricultural produce had come down. It was in these difficult times that Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma was invested with ruling powers, T. Austin, an Englishman, succeeded Subrahmanya Aiyar as Dewan, and C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar was appointed legal and constitutional adviser to the Travancore government.
However, in 1932, when the Dewan recalled the important events of the preceding year in his annual address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly, one of the two legislatures in Travancore then, there was no mention of any treasure being taken from the temple or used.
Ms. Hatch's book provided a description of how large wooden chests were placed “ready to receive the daily offerings.” She mentioned that as and when the chests became full they were lowered into the vaults for safe-keeping. This may partially explain how votive offerings like gold coins reached the vaults. But the description does not throw much light on how large artefacts such as the golden icon that was recently discovered reached the vaults.
Indeed, how such vast amounts of wealth and innumerable artefacts accumulated in the vaults, and remained safe without apparent pilferage for such a long period, remains a puzzle.
The article has been corrected for a factual error
Keywords: Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, temple treasure
Rich India and poor Indians. All riches burgled from the unsuspecting, common Indians for some thousands of years,by the unproductive crooks, living off the cleverly imbibed superstition with religion and caste division of Indian society. Had the Indian society been allowed to be realy unified society,with judicious rulers, the same wealth could have been utilised for a welfare state.It could have kept India strong and may not have been a victim of foreign aggressions.
We, Indians are intelligent people. Still we lag in innovation and spend lot of our hard earned money in importing defence equipments, nuclear tech & other modern machinery from western countries.Most intelligent Indian engineers are working in IT company and performing tasks that can be performed by our 12th graders. We need to invest all these wealth in Research and Development. We need to form IRS (Indian Research Service) - similar to IAS. Our primary focus should be INNOVATION.
Quite interesting and informative. Our felicitations to The Hindu which has dug out this information from its Archives.
Even though the temple was under the control of Royal Family for years, the royal family has not even taken a coin from the treasure. This shows the devotion of the family to Sree Padmanabha.The treasure should be kept in the temple iself as it is the wealth of Padmanabh.Nobody should disturb the present arrangements.
Royal family of Travancore continue to be dasa of Lord Padmanabha and continue to maintain the same decorum in the family tradition and will never discontinue the practice of visiting the temple on daily basis and also family members do visit often.Royal family has contributed to the welfare of the poor people of in and around the temple by providing food two times in a day and people attended schools and come up in life and has not forgotten in their life times.Loyalty towards Travancore Maharaja family is still there particularly Trivandrum people.Contribution towards welfare of people and gratitude of the people for Travancore royal family will not diminish at all.
VS Achuthanandan, one of the survivors of the brutal regime of Divan Sir CP in Travancore, described the new-found treasure as loot coated with blood.
I'm starting to wonder if many more temples have riches hidden away
This treasure belongs to Sree Padmanabha and it should and will stay with him.
It is very humbling to know that the wealth were offered to God and preserved there for centuries by people who don't had MBA'S OR BBA'S. They were simply honest to the core and duty conscious.IF you look back when they built this temple there was no electricity but the construction was a perfect engineering master planned for security and continuity of religous traditions.It is very discouraging to learn about the innovations in corruption today to plunder the wealth of the nation. Our current education as well our society doesn't emphasise on honesty and integrity which are the MBA and BBA which our great leaders and rulers had. Let the wealth be maintained in the temple as it was and show our sincere respects to our kings, rulers, leaders and great grandfathers who upheld our traditions.
It should have not been opened at all - what is the use of opening it now?
The findings were NOT new. I belong the family of one of the priests who was a purohit in this temple some years back. My relative used to tell us that there is a lot of gold, diamonds and other valuables in the stor rooms below the temple. The same is under the gaurd of sacred Cobras, Nagarjas and ordinary people cannot enter these kallaras. We belived these sayings with a pinch of salt. Now we know they were right. Sorry Bava, we believe you 100% now. The findings belongs to Lord Antha Padmanabha and who ever tries to put his hand on or think of doing any wrong will defenitley get punished by the Nagas. Unscrupulous politicians, beware.
I appreciate 'The Hindu' to bring this wonderful article from its archives and the effort they put for this.
Although small, at least for journalism's sake, no other piece in print or visual media of this Google era went as far as a fraction of the details and analysis presented here in lieu of being agents of the ensuing speculative pandemonium. The information provided by Rajaram Menon's comments above is interesting and the view of Madhu's is so very true.
Thanks a ton to The Hindu for publishing this great information, which is surely beyond imagination of many in the current generations. Since the treasure was used by the Royal family to handle economic fall, the RBI and Kerala state Govt. should handle it carefully as a reserve for the future, taking into confidence the former. Such an action would enable achieve another milestone for India to emerge as Superpower.
A timely article shedding light into the historical events similar to whats happening now! Good job Hindu in digging out and publishing this article.
At the outset, I express my gratitude to The Hindu for keeping us posted with valuable information of 1931. The administration of the Temple should continue with the Travancore Royal Family only.
One thing is certain..the maharajas of travancore were honest and devotees of sree padmanabhaswamy..The treasure belongs to the royal family. Let us allow the royal family to rule the state so that our state will prosper which is suffering Under selfish politicians . The royal family has proved beyond doubt their honesty and affection to the Prajas. let us give full freedom to manage the treasure. We are fed up with the present set up.
Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple is just one example of a storehouse of Indian heritage and of its wealth for centuries. We may now know how British pilfered India and why they called India the Crown Jewel of its Empire. Every temple in the South India was probably as rich as Padmanabhaswamy Temple but were either looted by British or the subsequent governments after Independence in secrecy. It is the duty of every Indian to safegaurd these priceless treasures from Politicians - our modern day colonial mentality leaders.
Here is a royal family with unquestionable integrity and some in Tamil Nadu's Palani temple, where the deity Lord Murugan was scratched from behind for the deity was made of NAVABHASHANA.
Let the teasures lie in the temple vaults themselves. Bringing them out even for the simple purpose of valuation will kindle evil thoughts in the minds of evil people and the treasure to plunder. Kudos to the Royal Family Members , past and present , for so sacredly safeguarding these valuables from the evil people. Please let them continue in their arduous task.
It is unbelievable that no one no trustees or officials did not take action to open the cellars and count the assets and record. Secondly it is worth investigating who have donated such valuable items. It is stated that 17 kg gold coins of British time was found How ? Was it offering by some one or British Govt. ? The details of all history must be studied and published for the information of the public.
Kerala's culture, history, natural beauty is like no other state in India. The people of the state should preserve what they have rather than become yet another polluted industrialized state like Bihar or Orissa where the state governments only know how to exploit the natural resources at the cost of indigenous people. As regards to the treasure of the temple, I think making a world class temple museum and collecting ticket revenues for charity would be a great idea. Please do not sell the gold - its our national treasure!
All these years God Padmanabha swamy deprived of adoring the jewels to the devotee. Locking up in the cellar is bad idea. All the treasure should be kept in a museum and should be loaned to gods on occasions. Several century old British royals jewels are at the museum and the royals requisition the jewels for the ceremony and return it to the curator.
Happy to see our history and wealth in those days- thanks to "The Hindu". Some comments here includes hatred towards other religions - Christianity came to India 2000 Years ago- the truth-
Travencore family is a Real Royal family. These many days they protected carefully and now we need to see how the government will protect. They will protect just like Tirumala and tirupathi or betterway.
What amazes me most is, if a small kingdom, the size of Travancore, had amassed so much wealth which translates to thousands of crores - then think about the wealth the mughals or other superior kings would have had? Where are they? If British took it or Portuguese took it or French took it - how much wealth would they be having in some of these uncovered vaults in their respective countries? I cant imagine. If India - the rightful owner of those wealth were to get it all back, we would not be having any poor person anymore for the rest of the years we live on earth. Alas, some dreams always remain dreams. But I can dream - can't I?
This is great news, but India is rich-ly poor. One of my friend mentioned from a book he read...At the time of our independence our politicians and law makers were more educated than a common person but now its the reverse and I am not really sure how long this trend continues.
Indeed this invaluable information about the treasure trove could not have been known to public had not there been a petition for take over by state of the administration of the temple. But that does not give any creditability to his notions for the petition. The very fact that the Royal family has,as Padmanabha Dasas have preserved all the secret without allowing any cause for pilferage of the bout less valuables is itself commendable. It is itself self satisfying that the family deserves to be allowed to continue holding as trustees without political or other intervention.
Adv. Sundar Rajan, Kerala Puli, Manne Tipu Sultan has finally taken Kerala. What Tipu could not do during his lifetime, the Supreme Court aided and abetted. Now democracy has finally reached Kerala. What did he achieve? We watch the unfolding of the final chapter: Raja Ravi Varma's painting, circa 1890s, went for $800,000 at auction in UK by Bonhams on October 29, 2007. So what would be the estimated value of a small broom (golden) probably used to clean the diety's chambers donated by Swati Tirunal circa 1830's? Or gold coins from Krishnadevaraya's regime? Or the "offerings" by the mother of "Garbha Sreeman" to save Travancore from being annexed by the British in the 1820's due to the lack of a male heir to the throne? Interesting decision by the esteemed Supreme Court to question the integrity of prior rulers based on the current rulers. The pandora's box having been opened, now the State has to spend crores of rupees as security while it took only two old watchmen before June 2011.
It is a pity to see comments from people who believe selling antiques to build roads and bridges and fill potholes can lead to a so called 'developed' Kerala. The socialists who claim to solve poverty in Kerala by selling this antique is another misinformed group. Where on earth can poverty eradication happen by distributing the wealth? Poverty eradication can happen only by empowering people, not just by charity.This wealth should stay in a more secure, modern vault(s) at undisclosed location to the public (within the temple premises), and the Travancore Royal family should have the control over the assets with help from the government in securing the assets. I trust the peasant monarchs to the Democratic ministers in our country.
When I realised that the total value of wealth discovered is, roughly, only half the amount that the country lost due to the 2G licence scam, I felt that it would be a prudent decision to let the wealth lie where it safely lay for so many centuries. Bring it out would only allow the same politicians to plunder this wealth as well, and fill their own coffers.
The treasures of the erstwhile kings and the temples, according to Kaliyuga valuation is enormous. Northern temples like Somnath that were looted and Sri Padmanabha temple that was not touched stand as testimony to the richness of Bharat. Common people should be at least be able to view this wealth over the web, so that they understand their heritage. Travancore Royalty is unusual and probably not as scandal ridden as British Monarchy. Royalties around the world are now perceived as dead weight. Travancore kings as vassals of Lord Padmanabha walked a nobler path than other Royalties. Like Vatican, when the ruler follows the noble path, the rule will likely be benevolent. As to the treasures, themselves, safeguarding from local and international parties is unlikely to succeed, given the current state of Kaliyuga. Things have unfolded as they were meant to be, and it will be interesting to observe these events detachedly as they play out.
I'm afraid that, in an otherwise fine article, there is a numerical error, right in the opening sentence! 1931 would not be "sixty nine years ago," but rather, eighty years ago.
It is fantastic and mind boggling to imagine how The Hindu managed to browse through its entire archives and able to dig out the treasures of The Hindu treasury. Can The Hindu post an article how it was able to treasure trove this very precious article? Hats of to you for such a great informative research.
i wonder how sacrificial our ancestors were.Billions were kept in a temple and no one was interested in it.for them spirituality was the way of life that is why they sacrificed money they had for lord vishnu's divinity. In todays times people like A Raja, etc may try to loot the invaluble.
I appreciate the HINDU news paper maintaining and showing to the people about the past and truths behind. Now there is no britishers to loot, But there are lot of people in (Lot of politicians) India who is trying put in their pocket.
The whistleblower for this operation is a lawyer who had filed a petition. Without his information, this wealth would have remained unnoticed. This raises two concerns: Why is the lawyer not recognized in the press? How did the lawyer know there is something important inside?
1) The treasure should be piece-wise photographed, tagged and to be kept in the current vaults back with widened & tightened modern security levels in addition to the security sytem which was employed by the then rulers. 2) Similar to the above point (1), it can be kept in Musuem in the temple premises itself for the devotees to worship the Lord. However, the security levels should be tighten with modern systems. 3) A nation's state of wealth, would be decided based upon the reserves of Gold it has. The gold from the treasure can be shown as the Gold Reserve while keeping it either in the vaults itself or in the temple museum, thus increasing our state of wealth / currency rating. In no case it should be used as an economic resources for the Govt. and Govt. schemes. I hope G.O.I. and the Supreme Court would enact in the way which would not hurt the sentiments of the Hindus. I urge, I have no intentions to hurt their sentiments of any individual or non Hindu believer.
We have to be vigilant and I am sure that the eyes of our top Leaders in Delhi are on this Treasure.
You just create a world class museum and display the ariticle, for it to last for ever and be a constant source of income. Believe me the whole of India and also the world will come to see such a treasure. You have tourism, hotels will be full and travel agents more than happy. who knows the pilgrimage will shift from tirupathi to padmanabha temple for good.
Media started speculating and suggesting how the treasures unearthed from Shree Ananda Padmanabha Swami Temple could be utilized for the welfare of the country. These types of speculations and discussions in media can only feed to the hungry covert plans of some people in power and positions for abuse. Such speculations will not do anything good to the country. The royals of erstwhile Travancore were wiser and devoted to GOD , that they dedicated the wealth to the temple , they protected the wealth from reaching to Muslim rulers and British in those years of slavery. They maintained the secrecy for many centuries. The finding of treasure teaches us many lessons . It only proves our historians' statements that Muslim rulers who invaded our country looted our treasures that were only followed by the later arriving British. The Indian state governments and the central government put together spend every year about may be 10 lakh crores of rupees( annual budgets of states and union) for so many decades. Yet the country has not progressed as it should have been. Now media and some group of people start commenting that this money should be spent for rural schemes, other schemes etc etc. It is amusing to note when so many lakh crores of money could not help to enhance the prosperity of the country , how this small amount when compared to total annual budgets, can transform the country in one year. The way the media suggest seems that the whole treasure amount will vanish in one year without doing anything good to the country. First of all , the treasure money belongs to the Temple, not to the government. Government either state or central cannot forcibly take the treasure from Hindu temples while they allow other communities wealth to grow and untouched. It is not a fair treatment to temples. The country should unite and fight if such a move is taken either by state or union government. Instead I consolidate below here what many people consider as a good idea: 1. The treasure items should be documented & current worth evaluated.2. The temple trust shall deposit the treasure to RBI. The deposit agreement should be witnessed & signed by union government.3.RBI shall be the custodians of the treasure as the temple has no means for maintaining the wealth secured.4. Temple trust will remain the owners of the items for ever.5.RBI shall issue equivalent value of cash in interest bearing bonds to governments or government financial institutions with union Government's guarantee for the repayment of money to RBI. 6.Such institutions will use the funds for investment in revenue generating infrastructures across the country or at the Kerala state.7. RBI shall pass on a percentage of the profit to the temple trust. The trust can utilize the interest amount for the temples maintenance & development.RBI can retain the balance of profit for the security maintenance of the treasure. 8.Only the items with antique values can be put up for a permanent exhibition, but only after a perfect fool proof security system is developed & the model tested. 9.There shall be a half yearly or yearly audit system jointly by RBI and Temple trust to ensure the items are safe and maintained in original by RBI.10. The original gold , diamond & all other ornaments should remain as they are now in the safe lockers of RBI .11.Government either state or center should have no rights on the property. It is doubtful whether any Indian agencies have at present or can develop any fool proof, high security enabled exhibition system now. Given about the past track records of our Indian law & order enforcement system, it is doubtful whether India can maintain such a security system here. Because the integrity of people who will maintain such a security system will be the weakest link in the security chain. That determines the would be level of security system. Hence till a tamper proof security system is developed , RBI shall not put up the antiques for exhibition.The original videos and pictures of the items taken shall be deposited with temple trust and deposited in lockers also. They shall not be published to public for fear of any chances for future security breach. The above are some of the ideas for consideration by supreme court and the temple trust.
The reason why the royal family and others have not amassed the wealth is that they believed there is some superpower called padmanaba. They thought if we steal this property from the temple the God will punish them. Just simply because they beleived that God exist and fear of punishment , they would not have touched. But there is a possibility someone who knows the truth that God won't follow and punish would have stolen some, because we don't have a meticulously maintained account register to verify the fact.But onething is clear, the way in which the upper class people has exploited the poor is appalling.
The Tranvancore royals made an abortive bid to create an independent kingdom during the period leading to India's independence. They might have withheld from using the treasures assuming that it would be under their control for all time. Since the wealth of the royals were those that they plundered from the people, they have no right over this treasure.
A revelation of the sacrifice and benevolence by the Tranvancore Kings to the future generation and not to forget the integrity of the custodians of the Treasure in the Temple. Really strange in the current order of the day, where we witness amassing and corruption at its zenith. As a true believer in the existence of GOD, it was the wish of the Almighty that the Treasure is not in the hands of tainted persons. Probably, it could be the Order of His Highness to arrange for proper utilization of the Treasure in times of great need and to the deserving.
The administration of the temple should continue with the Maharaja of Travancore and devaswom board should not be entrusted. The misappropriation of all these wealth has not been possible because of the excellent administration of the temple by the Royalty all these Years. They have considered the deity Ananthapadmanabhaswamy as the ruler of the State and the maharaja as his agent. The daily accounts of the State was read before the deity. Unless for their clever way of safeguarding this wealth, it could have been taken away by the invaders in those days.
When I realised that the total value of wealth discovered is, roughly, only half the amount that the country lost due to the 2G licence scam, I felt that it would be a prudent decision to let the wealth lie where it safely lay for so many centuries. Bring it out would only allow the same politicians to plunder this wealth as well, and fill their own coffers.
It was thoughtful of The Hindu to issue this new report for the information of the current generation. Possibly, the then apex court had not intervened, there were no nightly description in the TV channels or in the catious newspapers then functioning on the huge cache of treasure and a nightly debate on how it is to be used -for the betterment of the people at large, etc.etc. What a changed world in which we now live! A word of thanks should go to the crores of devotees in the past and for the Royal Travancore Family to have guarded it thus far. Now it is for the Thiruvanathapuram and Indian citizens to ensure that the Nation does not gobble up this up on one ground or another.
While it is easy to juxtapose the anachronism of royalty's alleged claims of authority with the current social order and make fun of it, the integrity of the Travancore Kings and their adherence to scruples in preserving the treasure needs to be commended. Nothing could have stopped them before Independence, from appropriating the wealth of Sree Padmanabha, as whose dasas they ruled Travancore. Polity and leadership of today is filled with people who leave no opportunity to make money. The kingpins of 2G and KG need to understand what values are from these noble kings.
The treasures now found opened and assessed makes one wonder how so much wealth had accumulated in the temple chest. Another wonder is that it was safe till now.The find of treasure has lot of archeological and historic value and investigated for public interest. Perhaps the Great Marthanda Varma might have contributed a major part of the treasure. The precious articles found is no doubt belongs to the Travancore dynasty dedicated to Shri Padmanabha and they ruled the state on behalf of Shri Padmanbha. This is now the state's duty to protect the treasure and the Chief Minister has come forward to set at rest the rumours spreading around!
Thank God the the British did not know about it then. The whole lot would have been looted!!!
The surprising fact is that the treasure still exist in the same temple with out any security despite people knew of the treasure.
A very informative article. Expect more of such impartial historic accounts about the treasure trove from your news paper.
The treasure found can be used for the development of infrastructure of the Kerala State/Nation. And also, One Educational university at par with the world standard may be started and the same may be dedicated to the nation so that our future generation will remain competitive in all fields, with other nationals.
The effort taken by the Government in opening the rooms, where the treasure was stored, is appreciated. The history report given by the HINDU is commendable.
Among many interesting things people are pointing out now, I think the most valuable of all is a reminder or hope for the younger generation. Let me explain this thought with some more detail. The newer generation born after India's independence hear so much about how great our civilization was. We hear so much about vedic works, literary works, architectural excellence, how brave they were, how their sexual knowledge and understanding was so advanced, so on and so forth. None of this, however, is same as living that life and experiencing their greatness firsthand. This treasure find, in my opinion, brings our knowledge of our ancestors so much closer to our senses of reality and brings trust that they indeed were great in every aspect we often hear about them. Finding of this treasure that reinstates our knowledge of them is in itself a gift from our ancestors to the newer generation. The Travancore royals have lived to prove their oath and shown what a people's leader means.
Either due to benevolence of the King who ruled or due to devotion of the people in the locality, the wealth remained intact till today. Let others not bother about how to dispose it off. Some of the Christian churches like one at Edapally and Kanjoor, are said to contain more wealth than what was found in Padmanabha swamy temple and also the Cheraman mosque at Kodungallur. Govt should take steps to take out these treasures and assess their antique value and think of exhibiting them for the benefit of the public. Chera raja who went to haj was said to have surrendered his entire wealth to this mosque. There will certainly be very historically important objects in Cheraman mosque.
This (only from The Hindu) is an interesting account from your archives. I can only wonder how the current findings have escaped pilferage from 'grave robbers', invaders, colonizers, and just plain crooks. India has - from ancient times, had its share of treasures taken away: the Peacock Throne, Kohinoor diamond, etc. That was the history of many countries - including India. For example, the treasures from ancient Troy are housed in (I think) a German museum. One defense of these incidents is that the host (read pilfering) country treasured what they took, and didn't trash it; they are now in museums for the public to see and wonder about our collective past. I now wonder what these modern times have in store for these treasures: they are now being handled by Indians!! One has to only read recent issues of The Hindu: the corruption scandals, the cover-ups, the nepotism, and plain, outright daylight thuggery. Do the Indians care?!
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