Temple treasures belong to royal family: Sankaracharya

Temple treasures belong to royal family: Sankaracharya

From: Balakrishnan Hariharan

 

 

Sree Padmanabha Temple treasures belong to Travancore royal family: Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati.

Source: PTI , Date: 7/5/2011

 

Golden Lord Padmanabha

Kanchipuram (TN), 5th July 2011.

Negated any other option,the Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi stated that the huge treasures, near Rupees 100000 crores in current valuation as found in Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram were the "exclusive property" of Travancore royal family that dedicated their kingdom to the presiding deity of the temple.

         "For long the erstwhile royal family was the custodian of the temple and they dedicted their kingdom to Lord Sree Padmanabhaswamy.The treasures were offerings made by erstwhile rulers to the temple, hence the recoveries belonged to the royal family", he told PTI here.

         "However, the treasures should be kept in the temple cellars itself", he said.

         The cellars of the temple, closed for several decades, were ordered to be opened by the Supreme Court to prepare inventory while considering a private petition recently.

         The deity of Padmanabha Swami Temple is the family deity of Travancore royal family. Members of the erstwhile royal family had dedicated their kingdom to the deity and pledged that they will live as servants of Padmanabha. The Shrine is run by a trust floated by the Travnacore royal house. Vast collection of gold, silver, precious stones and priceless jewellery were discovered in the cellars of the temple while preparing the inventory.'' [e PTI News].

          Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi of Kanchi Kamkoti Peetham hinted the tradition of Sanatana Bharat, where the many ancient Hindu Kingdoms were operated by the King under the dictum of the Guru (Mentor-Path Finder)and as a servant of the People and People's God. The people and the King of Travnacore enriched this ancient temple as the richest Hindu Deity in this world so far.

             The Travancore royal family did follow the tradition to be the servant of Lord Padmanabh here. Sankaracharya of Kanchi Mutth reminded the glorious past of Hindu dynasty of King Janaka under the blessings of Saint Yagyavalkya, King Vikramaditya under the teachings of Kautilya, King Harihar and Bukku with the inspiration of Vidyaranya Swami or Chatrapati Shivaji offered everything to Devi Bhavani and Samrath Guru Ramdas Swami.

The Sankaracharya vehemently opposed the present Govt.'s attitude to denounce the Sanatana Hindu Dharma by some of its key functionaries in Congress and the tendency to grab Temple Properties of Hindus through an unprecedented pro-activeness for the last 10 years.

The Kanchi seer advocated in favour of keeping the unearthed near 100000 crore ($ 25 Billion) treasury as temple property under the sacred authority of Travancore royal family.

Undoubtedly, descedents of this Kingdom think themselves as the servant of Lord Padmanabha and they did not stashed any thing out side the Temples or in any Swiss Bank. Actually, the British snatched many things invaluable for Britain from India. One stone harmonium of this Padmanabha Temple was transported by the British to Britain illegally. The world famous Kohinoor Diamond was also grabbed by the English Men near Agra, when it was being trasported to Lord Jagannath of Puri by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, after he understood the possible aggression of the Brtish rulers throuhout India. [eAgencies]

Read details and much more in Hindu Existence & World Hindu Unity.

Judge Rajan describes abou the Wealth of Sri Padmanabhan---Youtube video.

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A daily news summary for news media, educators, researchers, writers and religious leaders worldwide, courtesy of Hinduism Today magazine's editorial staff

A Hindu Temple Treasure Dilemma: Answers from the Ancients

Source

WASHINGTON, DC, July 11, 2011 (by Aseem Shukla, co-founder of HAF, for the Washington Post):

India as a land of stunning contradictions is as much a tired cliche as it is true. But what to make of the priceless treasures? Why would the government demand that the vaults of the private Padmanabhaswami temple be opened? And what to do with a bounty suitable for the Gods? In these questions lies a potent commentary on the vagaries of Hindu life in India today.
         In a bid to define a very idiosyncratic version of secular democracy, India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, placed the most prominent Hindu temples under government control by appointing the boards that administer them. So while Hindus do not actually control many of their temples, churches and mosques enjoy freedom from any government interference. This inconsistency was exploited by the Supreme Court of India,  that could then claim authority to force the long hand of big brother into the most sacred depths of a temple and force open its vaults.
          The 16th century Padmanabhaswamy temple was preserved by the erstwhile royal family of Travancore, now part of the southern state of Kerala, for generations, and it was they who placed their own royal assets into the temple in their faith that the Deity of the temple is actually the legitimate ruler of their kingdom. While the gifts to their patron Deity had a pragmatic dimension for the royals since the assets could be used in time of crisis, such as famine or war.
          Not surprisingly, socialist leaders in India are calling for the temple wealth of an estimated 22 billion dollars, that may amount to as much as the entire annual education budget for India, to be summarily sold off with the money distributed to the millions of the nation's poor. Of course, if temples could be pawned off so easily, churches and mosques--perhaps even the glittering gold lining Sikhism's holiest shrine--would be next? Should the Sistine Chapel be sold to bail out Italy's sovereign debt crisis? Hindu shrines receive no government subsidies for their maintenance, and the idea of India's notoriously corrupt government confiscating their treasure is thankfully anathema to most observers.
          S.P. Sabharathnam, one of the foremost scholars of the Agamas based in India, explained to me that the Mulakosa Bhakta Vivarana (Allocation of the Divine Treasure) chapter specifically enjoins that the treasures should be held, but the interest accrued can be used for worldly needs ranging from preservation of that temple and other temples in need to feeding of devotees and the poor and creating schools for preservation of Vedic and general studies. Follow the words of the ancients, and such a move could revitalize the temple and address the urgent needs of many lesser known Hindu institutions decaying in the face of weak governing boards and government neglect.
         The story playing out in south India must end well for that temple, as the stakes are as high as the valuation of the gold. Perhaps the temple will some day display a sampling of the wealth that characterized the Indic civilization at its zenith and that was plundered and looted by successive invasions that defined the last millennium until the British colonialists left in 1947. Perhaps the jewels of India can someday be seen in India without having to visit the Tower of London.

A History, and the Real Riches, of India's Padmanabhaswami Temple

Source

USA, July 11, 2011 (by Vasudha Narayanan, Director of the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions , University of Florida, for the Huffington Post):
          One of the thousand names given to the Hindu God Vishnu is Sri-nidhi -- he whose treasure is the Goddess of Fortune. "Treasure" and "fortune" were words that were used to describe the recent discovery in a Vishnu temple at Thiruvananthapuram, in the state of Kerala, India, where a hoard worth more than $22 billion (give or take) was discovered in the vaults. The treasure reportedly includes hundreds of golden chairs, jars and jeweled crowns, thousands of precious gems, sacks full of gold coins, and an image of Vishnu studded with 1,000 diamonds. And that is just the beginning. It seems incredible that a wealth of this proportion lay in a place so central and well known without being looted.
             Vishnu is usually known by a local name in temples in south India, and in Thiruvanantapuram he is called Padma-nabha-swamy, or "the lord from whose navel emerges the lotus." The lotus in this context is an allusion to creation and the created universe. Vishnu, a name that means "the all pervasive one," reclines in this temple on the coils of his serpent-servant, called Ananta ("without end" or "infinite"). Poets simply referred to the temple-town as Ananta-puram or the "Endless City."
                  The Hindu temple here, like those in many parts of the world, seems to have undergone major renovation whenever royal patronage willed it, and the last major rebuilding was in the 18th century. Over the last two millennia, several ruling families -- kings and queens -- have held power over the areas encompassed by the city of Thiruvananthapuram today. The city itself became the capital of the state called Travancore by the British. Originally occupying a large territory, "it was gradually reduced to the present Travancore with its area of 6653 miles" says P. Shungoonny Menon  in his "A History of Travancore from Earliest Times in 1878," with considerable exactitude and regret.
             Members of the Travancore royal family are popularly known by the first two names which, taken together, serve as an astrological indicator referring specifically to a star/asterism connected to the exact moment when they were born. Thus, the name of the last "reigning" monarch was Chithira Thirunal (1912-1991), which literally translates as "the sacred day (thirunal) when the moon was near the star Chitra (Spica/Virgo)."
                 However, the rulers are also famously known as Sri Padmanabha dasa or Padmanabha sevini -- "the servant of Lord Padmanabha." Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma in the 18th century made his kingdom over to the deity in the Padmanabhaswamy temple, who was considered the "real" monarch -- the earthly rulers held power as his servant.
              In the Indian judicial system, as an Indian Supreme Court lawyer has observed in the past, deities are considered to be "legal entities who could have a legal representation in courts through trustees or an in-charge of the temple in which they are worshipped." Further, legal experts agree that the deity resident in a temple is a "juristic entity," and it has "juridical status" with power to sue and be sued. With so many people who claim to be stake-holders and the slow moving judicial system in India, it is likely that the deity who reclines on the Endless Ananta will probably be involved for the foreseeable future, at least, in legal disputes.
                 Nammalvar promised endless fame for those who worshiped the deity in Anantapuram. The royal servants of Padmanabha have in their times, through their visionary contribution to education, scholarship and the arts, encouraged a culture that promoted literacy and intellectual pluralism in multiple registers. And those are endless riches worth bragging about in the Endless City.

Hindu Scriptures Guive Guidance on Padmanabhaswami Treasure

HPI

INDIA, July 4, 2011 (By Sri Dr. S.P. Sabharathnam, one of the world's foremost expert on the sacred Agamas and a consultant to Hinduism Today).
             The huge treasure unearthed in the Anantapadma Nabha Swami Temple should be handled very, very carefully.
                   What the temple authorities should have done first is the systematic performance of Svarnakarshana Bhairva Yagna and Nidhipati (Kubera) Yagna to get the permission from the concerned Deities to lay their hands on the treasure. Such rules are found in the Agamas. They have not done these yagnas.
            As per the directions given in the Agamas under the chapter on "Mulakosa Bhakta Vivarana" (Allocation of the Divine Treasure) the treasure belongs solely to the Temple. Neither the Ruler of the country nor any other [human] supreme authority has a right to claim it.
 1. Golds and diamonds should be preserved as "Mulakosa" and from the interest available from this Kosa , one part should be utilized for the timely renovations and maintenance of the temple. These gold and diamond items should not be modified or sold.
2. One part should be for education in general and education of Vedic and Agamic studies in particular.

3. One part should be for maintaining health centers and hospitals.

4. One part for maintaining Gosala and Gajasala.

5. One part for maintaining Gardens and flower plants for the temple.

6. One part for conducting the monthly festivals and yearly grand festivals (mahotsavas) without violation or omission.

7. One part for large scale anna dana (providing food for all the devotees).

 8. One part for maintaining irrigation system and temple tank.

9. One part for the maintenance of other temples which are in need of financial help.

10. One part for the performance of Vedic Yagnas such as Parjanya Ishti, Garuda Yaga, Vrushabha Yaga, Mayura Yaga and others.

In this way, the directions continue further.

The Agamas indicate that such treasure may not even have been deposited by humans. They may have appeared upon the performance of certain yagnas that could had taken place centuries before. As such treasures may not have been all deposited there by the royal family of Travancore or they are the 'plundered' asset some historians have wrongly surmised.

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