The Padmanabhaswamy temple treasure is a collection of valuable objects including gold thrones, crowns, coins, statues and ornaments, diamonds and other precious stones. It was discovered in some of the subterranean vaults of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, in the Indian state of Kerala, when five of its six (or possibly eight) vaults were opened on 27 June 2011. The vaults were opened on the orders of the Supreme Court of India, which was hearing a private petition seeking transparency in the running of the temple.[1] The discovery of the treasure attracted widespread national and international media attention as it is considered to be the largest collection of items of gold and precious stones in the recorded history of the world.[2] [3] [4] [5] On the possibility of future appropriation of the wealth, for the need of a new management and proper inventorying of the articles in the vaults, a public interest petition was registered with the Supreme court of India. In 2020, the Travancore Royal Family won the rights to manage the temple, as well all its financial aspects. The Supreme Court of India overruled the Kerala High Court's legal jurisprudence based on regional facts and recognition of the nullified princely agreement based on "Ruler of Travancore." Kerala’s government reached out to NASA to help them open the last vault
The temple management authorities were aware of the existence of at least six vaults. They were situated underground, all around, and to the west of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. For documentation purposes, these vaults have been designated as vaults A, B, C, D, E and F. Subsequently, two additional subterranean vaults have been discovered, and they have been designated as Vault G and Vault H.[6]
The Supreme Court of India had ordered an amicus curiae appointed by it to prepare an inventory of the treasure. Full details of the inventory have not been revealed. However newspaper reports gave an indication of some of the possible contents of the vaults.[5] About 40 groups of objects were retrieved from Vault E and Vault F. Another 1469 groups of objects found in Vault C and 617 in Vault D. Over 102,000 groups of objects (referred to as articles collectively) were recovered from Vault A alone.
According to news reports some of the items found include:
According to varying reports, at least three if not many more, solid gold crowns all studded with diamonds and other precious stones and pots of gold were found. While the above list is on the basis of news reports describing the July 2011 opening (and later) of Vaults A, C, D, E and F, a 1930s report from The Hindu mentions a granary-sized structure (within either Vault C or Vault D or Vault E or Vault F) almost filled with mostly gold and some silver coins.[8]
The valuables have been accumulated in the temple over several thousands of years, having been donated to the Deity, and subsequently stored in the Temple, by various Dynasties, such as the Cheras, the Pandyas, the Travancore royal family, the Kolathiris, the Pallavas, the Cholas, and many other Kings in the recorded history of both South India and beyond[9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] Most scholars believe that this was accumulated over thousands of years, given the mention of the Deity and the Temple in several extant Hindu Texts, the Tamil Sangam literature (500 BC to 300 AD wherein it was referred to as the "Golden Temple" on account of its then unimaginable wealth), and the treasures consist of countless artifacts dating back to the Chera, Pandya, and Greek and Roman epochs. The ancient epic Silappatikaram (circa 100 AD to 300 AD) speaks of the then Chera King Cenkuttuvan receiving gifts of gold and precious stones from a certain 'Golden Temple' (Arituyil-Amardon) which is believed to be the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.[16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
Gold had been mined as well as panned from rivers in Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur, Wayanad, Kollam, Palakkad and Malappuram districts for thousands of years. The Malabar region had several centers of trade and commerce since the Sumerian Period ranging from Vizhinjam in the South to Mangalore in the North. Also, at times like the invasion by Mysore, the other royal families like the Kolathiris (a branch of the Thiruvithamkur Royal Family - both originating in the Thiruvananthapuram area) in the then Kerala and the Far-South took refuge in Thiruvananthapuram, and stored their temple-wealth there for safekeeping in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple.[9] [10] [14] [15] Also, much of the treasures housed in the much larger and as-yet-unopened vaults, as well as in the much smaller cellars that have been opened, date back to long before the institution of the so-called Travancore Kingdom, e.g. the 800-kg hoard of gold coins from 200 B.C that was mentioned by Vinod Rai. Noted archaeologist and historian R. Nagaswamy has also stated that several records exist in Kerala, of offerings made to the Deity, from several parts of Kerala.[9] During the reign of Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, hundreds of temples were brought under the Government. The ornaments in these temples were also transferred to the Vaults of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple. Instead the funds of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple were utilised for the daily upkeep of these temples. From 1766 until 1792, Travancore also provided refuge to around a dozen other Hindu rulers who had fled their own princely states along the Malabar Coast, due to fears of possible military defeat by Kingdom of Mysore. They came with whatever valuables they had in their temples and donated them to Lord Padmanabha. These rulers, and their extended family members, also left their wealth with Lord Padmanabha, when they finally returned home, after Mysore's military defeat by the British forces in 1792.[5] [21] [22]
There are over 3000 surviving bundles of 'Cadjan' leaves (records) in Archaic Malayalam and Tamil, each bundle consisting of a hundred-thousand leaves, which relate to donations of gold and precious stones made exclusively to the temple over the millennia. Most of these are yet to have been studied and very few have even been glanced at yet. As these pertain exclusively to the donations made over millennia they would throw a lot of light on the story of the treasure. Lastly, it has to be remembered that in the period of the Travancore Kingdom, a distinction was always made between the Government (or State) Treasury (Karuvoolam) and the Royal Treasury (Chellam) and the Temple Treasury (Thiruvara Bhandaram or Sri Bhandaram).