The controversies dogging the famous Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram since the revelation almost four years ago that the shrine’s six secret cellars (Kallaras) are holding treasures like gold, ancient coins, diamonds, etc whose material value alone may come to over Rs120,000 crore are causing immense pain and concern to the deity’s devotees.
The latest among this series of controversies has been triggered by the audit report for the period between 2008-09 and 2013-14 presented to the Supreme Court by former CAG Vinod Rai which disclosed that there were discrepancies and mysteries in the ways in which the assets of the shrine worth hundreds of crores of rupees were being handled by the temple authorities.
Almost all the findings mentioned in Rai’s are shocking to the devotees and the authorities but the most shocking among them is that 266.272 kilograms of gold had disappeared when 893.644 kilos of the yellow metal from the temple’s cellars were melted and purified for the purpose of gold-plating various parts of the shrine since 1990.
Rai’s findings which justify to a great extent similar findings by Gopal Subramaniam, the Amicus Curiae appointed by the apex court, has caused a huge credibility problem for the temple administration, a trust headed by the former royalty of the Kingdom of Travancore, which is yet to respond to the latest disclosures.
As per the report, there has not been a proper weighing and valuing system for the gold and silver being given out for melting, purification and other purposes and these were being handed over to the contractor putting full trust in his assessment. The report adds that the temple authorities have not given any explanation about the loss of 266 kilos of gold.
The former CAG’s report has also cast a shadow of doubt over the claim by the ex-royalty, based on an astrological examination (Devaprasnam), that tragedies could befall the land if Vault B, second of the six secret cellars in the shrine, is opened for valuation of treasures. It was said that the one who entered Vault B might die of poison consumption or snake-bite.
According to the report, Vault B had been opened seven times between 1990 and 2002 and gold and silver had been taken out of it for melting and purification. The report also says that the details of gold and silver received at the temple as offerings in 2008-2009 were not available and that the accounting of the collection of wealth was not transparent.
“It is a matter of immense pain as far as the devotees are concerned,” said a former top temple employee who did not want to be identified. “The royal family has always enjoyed a kind of respect from the devotees that is almost equal to their devotion to the lord himself. It is now up to the temple trust, the royal family, to clear the air,” he said.
But the ex-royalty seems unprepared to do it at least for the time being, if reports coming out of Delhi can be believed. On Saturday, reports quoting correspondence between Rai and the royal family said that the latter was not ready to let him audit the trust’s accounts on the basis of court directions saying that the trust and the temple were totally different entities.
Gopal Subramaniam had last April stirred a hornets’ nest by stating in his report to the Supreme Court that pilferage in invaluable items from the temple vaults had been happening under the trust headed by the temple custodian, the representative of the Travancore royal family which had kept all those assets secure and sacred for so many centuries.
“The temple assets can be a legal issue for the authorities, the court, the trust, etc. But it is an emotional issue, a matter of spiritual agony, for the devotees,” said Sreeraj, a devotee who has been visiting the temple almost on a daily basis for the past three decades. “For us, the treasure is not as important as the lord himself but loss of His wealth cannot be tolerated,” he added.