A $22 billion treasure trove in a south Indian temple, the world's single-largest treasure find, has sparked an intensifying debate across India about who owns this ancient wealth of the gods: priests or the people?
The hoard of gold, diamonds, precious stones, jewelry and artifacts was found over the past week in five vaults of the 9th century Sree Padmanabhaswamy (pronounced padh-manaa-baa-swamee) temple in Trivandarum, capital of the south Indian state of Kerala, the Asia Times reported on July 8.
The vaults of the temple were opened after 130 years. The Supreme Court had ordered an inventory of them, acting on a petition from lawyer T P Sundara Rajan after a squabble over temple management. Temple records mention the treasure, and its existence was known to locals. However, no one knew its true size.
The preliminary inventory of the Padmanabhaswamy temple treasure may have had King Solomon, the Knights Templar and Indiana Jones rolling their eyes in wonder: over a ton of gold, sacks of diamonds and precious stones; gold necklaces over three meters long and weighing over 2.5 kilograms, gold crowns, thousands of pieces of antique jewelry, idols, and artifacts studded with diamonds and emeralds.
The contents of chamber Vault A were valued at over $11 billion in a conservative estimate. The sixth closed vault B, to be opened perhaps on July 8, is expected to surpass treasures in other vaults.
Two dozen policemen are guarding the $22 billion treasure that makes this little known temple the richest place of religion in the world. It easily displaces the Vatican, estimated to own about $15 billion in wealth, and the Tirupati temple, in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with about $11 billion of worldly properties.
Antique collectors' valuation of the find, to be confirmed by the Supreme Court, could be over $100 billion.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy declared on July 3 that the wealth would remain with the temple, as the temple owned the offering made to it. But with questions being asked nationwide over whether the gods need gold, particularly in such quantities, the Supreme Court may be shortly fielding more petitions to decide on using the godly means for greater good.
In 1750, the then Travancore ruler Marthanda Varma (1706-1758) donated the royal wealth to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. Marthanda Varma was called a "war machine," but was said to have not spent any of the conquered royal riches on luxury or personal use, but only on public welfare.
The increasing clamor is for the treasure to be used similarly for welfare of the many. The Mumbai-based Times of India edition of July 5 calculated that the Padmanabhaswamy temple treasure would meet India's entire education budget for the next two-and-a-half years.
Realistically, offerings to the gods are indirect offerings to people. For instance, the sacred prasad, or food offerings in temples, are given to devotees to eat after having been first served to the bejeweled stone idols. The food isn't thrown away or locked up in vaults. There seems no reason to fear the gods kicking up a fuss if the more glittering offerings are used to feed a few starving children, and pay their school fees and books.
And it is reasonable to expect the honorable judges of the Supreme Court, if not the Indian government, will ensure the shiny metal and stones don't sit idly behind locked doors for another 130 years.
Such temple wealth has been often a curse in Indian history, like a honey jar attracting lethal pests. Central Asian raiders repeatedly ransacked temples for treasures, such as Mahmud of Ghazni's (971-1030 AD) famous looting of the Somnath Temple in Gujarat, western India.