The whole world watches in disbelief as the famed El Dorado comes alive albeit in a different time zone to the one that’s was believed to be. The Spartan way of life of the Travancore royal family never matched the splendor of what they endowed to the temple. The treasures, the endowments of the theocratic state of Thiruvithamkoor to Sree Padmanabha the Lord to whom the state was bequeathed, have well remained where it was .
We should thank them for that. Saving riches from greedy eyes of Tipu Sultan and eager beaver British eyes, it must have been a challenge. When North India was plundered by the marauding Persians and the greedy British we lost significant amount of not just money and valuables but a part of us a heritage. It still pricks when I see the Kohinoor adorning the British Crown and wonder who sits on that grand peacock throne sat by Mughal Luminaries now.
This gift what was revealed over the past week whispers to me “Boy your people have not lost it all”. We have something and in fact not just something but plenty to happy about. The furore over who gets it seems unwarranted. We all get it. It is a part of us. But that doesn’t mean it goes the Robinhood style “divided among all”. More than money its heritage for us and all our future generation to cherish and for the rest of the world to see the splendor of Gods own country, to be awed by our artistic skills and a reminder that are we are wealthy still and will be ever more. We make a museum let the world be awed by what we have. Let them see that the God has his personal locker here and not anywhere else. Rejoice for we own a fortune and let it remain for it was intended to be used in times of grave need very grave need. (We must still be ashamed of selling gold pre 1990)
Let the temple itself be the trustee never changing hands but we all get to see it, marvel at it. In the splendor and richness of Sree Padmanabha I rejoice and though we are a democracy for once I say Hail the king!! and may he live long!!. My salutations to the most frugal Royals….those taxes were never squandered.
The population of Kerala is 3,33,87,677. The recent finding of the El Dorado in the Padmanabha Swami temple, made every keralite living and yet to be born, a real crorepati.
The first chapter in my book Kerala Coast a Byway In History, is captioned Kerala An El Dorado for the historians. The unearthing of rich artifact has made Kerala really an El Dorado.
The finding has made Kerala a god’s own country. The land is narrow and of course, there are very narrow minded people living in it. But the finding made every Keralaites a tall person.
Comment by Dr v sankaran nair — July 3, 2011 @ 6:16 pm
I wonder how our dear kings got all this gold, though slave labor and discrimination I am sure, there is no logical reason to believe the Kings earned this gold. I don’t understand why people get so excited about their heritage. The past has always been a lot less ethical and a lot more brutal. I am pretty sure all these people who go on and on about our glorious past would not for a moment want to live in it (unless they get to be the kings of-course).
For me its pretty clear, we are living in the most glorious period in human history..”yet”. Today is a lot more just and ethical compared to any other period in human history, the infant mortality rate is at its lowest and human life span has only increased and I am sure in the next 100 years, its only going to be better, so romanticizing about the past is cool, but just remember, all that gold stink of blood.
Comment by Jithin — July 4, 2011 @ 8:50 am
Most of that gold were gifts to the temple.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — July 4, 2011 @ 9:22 am
Mr.Jithin.
Hope you are not an indian, mean person giving respects to parents and keep only one wife/husband. So you don’t know value of single parents.. so you will never understand what is heritage..
Comment by Indianhidu — July 7, 2011 @ 5:31 am
Now also people are donating big to temples.Ambanis gold plated door of guruvayoor srikrishna swamy temple and vijay mallya gold plated sabarimala ayyappaswamy temple.In those times rajahs of all provinces donated big including the nepal king.Since the likes of kalmadis were not administering the temple all those gold is still there.
Now i disagree with the ideas of selling it up and distributing to the public.The gold ornaments of lord ayyappa is displayed in a secured room where devotees can see it at a distance.I have seen it at the pandalam temple.So i wish i could also see padmanabhaswamy’s gold too if they build a museum near the temple.
The problem is that politicians or those appointed by them do not have a good track record in protecting assets of the diety.In my village itself there is a retired devaswom employee who is a crorepathi now.One land of his was sold for 2 crore rupees.He made money and all those land bcos of this job at temple.His son told me that his father brought lot of gold coins to their home while on job.Ofcourse this gold would be those donated by devotees.
Comment by Maneesh J — July 7, 2011 @ 12:11 pm