Padmanabha Swami Temple is a temple in the state of Kerala, India. There is an enormous statue of Lord Vishnu with a lotus in His left hand. The Sheshnaga is smelling the fragrance of that lotus. There is a Padmatirtha in front of the temple.
This temple has recently been in the news with the discovery of the treasure worth more than 1 lakh to 5 lakh crore rupees or even more. Because of this, it has become the wealthiest temple in the world. The temple was not very famous before this news. This is not a discovery, the treasure has been lying there for hundreds of years. According to the legends, there are wells full of gold lying under there. If all the area is explored, one would get even more wealth there.
The treasure consists of pure gold, diamonds, sapphires, pearls, valuable stones, golden crowns, golden idols, and old British and Roman coins. This treasure has been found after opening the five rooms of the temple. The room, which is not yet opened, is believed to have even more wealth! All this wealth has been accumulated over the hundreds of years by donations of devotees, taxes collected by the king from time to time, and money earned from selling the famous Kerala spices.
This treasure came to light when one of the chiefs of the royal family, Utharadam Thirunal, permitted a photographer to take photos of the antiques in the temple. The temple workers came to know about the treasure inside the temple. Rumors spread about the royal family using the treasure. One of the devotees appealed in the high court against this. The royal family filed a case against this appeal claiming that their family has all the rights over the things in the temple. After that, a retired IPS officer, T. P. Sundaram appealed to the court to take over the wealth in the temple. Thus, this treasure came before the world.
Padmanabha Swami Temple has been under the administration of the trust made by the royal family of Travancore. They are the staunch devotee of Padmanabha Swami and say they are not interested in the wealth.
Many people wish that this wealth should be used for the welfare of people, but this wealth belongs to the Padmanabha Swami Temple. I think the treasure should be sold and the money should be deposited in different Indian banks under the trust. This would give the banks a large amount of money to use in the market and boost the Indian economy. The interest earned on the money should be used to renovate the temple and provide facilities to the devotees coming to Padmanabha Swami Temple and for the welfare of people in Kerala.
Many temples in India must have a lot of wealth. The declared property of Thirupathi Balaji Trust is about 35 thousand crores. As India was one of the wealthiest countries in the past, there must have been an enormous wealth across India.
Image source: Wikipedia