Temple Treasure

Jul 11, 2011 Editorial

The news at the end of June that treasure estimated to be worth over US$20billion was discovered in the underground vaults of a Hindu temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala caused quite a stir across the globe.
That such wealth had been locked away for centuries – even over a millennium – in a country that had been mired in poverty in the modern era raised even more eyebrows.
New estimates have been mooted as to the amount of wealth that might have been looted from Hindu temples by invaders during the Muslim and British conquests of India.
But the find has raised even more interesting questions – centring on the relationship of church and state in an age that has insisted on a strict demarcation between the two. The origins of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple go back to antiquity and are mentioned in texts from the 8th century.
Substantial additions were made in the 15th century by the ruling local Travancore dynasty that declared themselves as ‘servants” of the resident deity – Lord Vishnu.
The treasure is an accumulation of offerings, primarily from the royal family but also from visiting merchants and other worshippers over that time. That Roman coins have been identified attest to the length of time offerings have been accumulated.
It is not that it was not known that the temple had a hoard of past offerings: this is the norm with Hindu temples. While most northern ones such as the one at Somnath in Gujarat had been famously looted (in that instance by Muhamad of Ghazni) the southern temples all are known repositories of offerings.
Some like the recognisably extremely wealthy temple at Tirupati had used their wealth to run a number of charitable and religious institutions. The Padmanabhaswamy Temple, in fact, was known to have wealth, for in 1931 reports of the contents of one vault appeared in local newspapers and were even mentioned in some books.
Additionally, priests of the temple regularly conducted rituals in four of the six vaults and must have known of the contents. Matters came to public notice when at the beginning of this year the Supreme Court of India authorised the fire services and archaeology department, putatively for the safety of the temple, to open and examine the vaults.
The enormity of the findings, not surprisingly, caught the attention of the Kerala Government and they petitioned their high court for them to manage the temple and its wealth. The Kerala High Court complied, only to be challenged by the royal family on behalf of the temple trustees. The royals contended that the treasure belonged to no one but the deity which in India, has a legal status. The Kerala ruling was set aside by the Supreme Court but which has not made a final ruling as to ownership at this time.
And this brings us to the questions we posed above. How far can the state intervene in the affairs of religion? In India, opinions are divided: some want the government to take over the treasure.
Some want it to remain with the temple. Some want it go to museums. Some want the assets to be sold and money used for various purposes including charity while some oppose it saying it is very easy to do charity with other people’s money. The royal family, trustees of the temple are clear: “This wealth is to be used for religious benefits in the best interest of the temple, trustees and devotees.”
We believe that two issues, which go beyond India, are involved: one is religious freedom and the second is private property.
Taking over a temple’s property affects religious freedom and if one temple’s property can be taken over, then property of other temples, mosques, churches, synagogues and other places of worship can be taken over.
Secondly, if the principle is that the treasure of US$22billion should be taken over by the government to do good for the people, the same principle should be applied to Indian billionaires in India like Laxmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani etc.

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