Agencies/Thiruvananthapuram


Police walk past the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday
Armed commandoes cordoned off a medieval Hindu temple in Kerala yesterday after gold coins and precious stones worth billions of dollars were found in its vaults.
State Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said local authorities needed to take precautions and had set up a three-tier security ring involving 100 armed police.
Surveillance will be in place around the clock, and security forces are setting up a special control centre and looking at bringing in cameras.
“The treasure will be kept in the temple itself and Kerala police are taking over its security from temple staff,” said Chandy, who valued the discovery at Rs500bn ($11.2bn) on Saturday.
Five vaults of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram were opened last week, yielding enormous quantities of gold and silver jewellery, coins and precious stones.
A sixth is set to be explored later in the week.
Retired Kerala High Court judge C S Rajan, who is part of a seven-member team named by the Supreme Court to monitor the treasure hunt, estimated on Sunday that the valuables could be worth up to a trillion rupees ($22bn).
“Its antique and archaeological value has not been yet been taken into account,” he stressed.
A seventh vault reinforced with iron walls would be opened only after fresh instructions from the top court, he said.
K N Panikkar, an eminent historian, said the treasure was most likely a combination of gifts donated by devotees to the shrine and the wealth of the erstwhile Hindu royal family from the kingdom of Travancore.
“The king ruled in the name of the temple and so one can say it is the accumulated wealth of the temple and the maharajah’s own collection,” Panikker said.
The Times of India said one tonne of gold coins - some dating back to the era of French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte - as well as sacks full of diamonds and golden statues were among the artefacts discovered in the temple.
The national conservation agency, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), said it was stunned by the findings.
“Right now we are working in absolute darkness and we only know that fabulous treasure is pouring out,” ASI Director-General Gautam Sengupta said.
“No archaeologist has ever experienced vault after vault being opened and treasures being discovered like this,” Sengupta said in New Delhi, adding that many of the Hindu shrines across India were “very rich”.
The discoveries have catapulted the Kerala temple, renowned for its intricate sculptures, into the league of India’s richest shrines.
It was built hundreds of years ago by the king of Travancore and donations by devotees have been kept in the temple’s seven vaults since.
Since India achieved independence in 1947, a trust managed by descendants of the Travancore royal family has controlled the temple.
Shashi Bhushan, a Kerala-based historian, told the Mint business newspaper that the treasure was likely to be “the proceeds of trade” from the state, which was a centre for spice trading.
As estimates of the treasure’s worth rise, a fierce debate is growing regarding what to do with the discovery, in a country where 450mn people live in poverty.
Leaders of the Hindu community want the wealth to be invested in the temple, while many intellectuals, including former Supreme Court judge V R Krishna Iyer have suggested it should be used for the public good.
The vaults were searched after a lawyer petitioned the top court to order the government to take over the temple as it did not have adequate security.
Several temples in India have billions of dollars worth of wealth as devotees donate gold and other precious objects as gifts to spiritual or religious institutions that run hospitals, schools and colleges.
The Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh is reported to have 3,000kg of gold, a third of which it deposited with the State Bank of India last year, while spiritual guru Sai Baba, who died in April, left behind an estimated $9bn estate.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who staged a fast against corruption last month that led to protests against the government, has built a $40mn-a-year global empire through yoga and various spiritual products and services.