The Padmanabhaswami Treasure

1. King Marthanda Varma usurped the crown from his King Uncle’s son, slaughtering the entire lot including the Nair chieftains who opposed it. The cruelty to the women folk was inhuman. This created extreme public anger against him. To continue would be risky.

2. He suddenly gifted the kingdom to Padmanabha, and told the people that it is the deity's crown and country now; so fight it at your own peril. The brilliant political trick paid off.

3. The treasure consists of plunders from conquered small nearby kingdoms, wealth entrusted for safe keeping by kings and Malabar people fleeing from Tippu, confiscations from enemies of the kings etc. It is not gifts to god by devotees.

4. The Royalty refused to sign the Accession unless they were allowed to keep the Temple as private property [among other real estate, aeroplane etc etc etc]. This was because their private get-away money was stored in the Temple. Duly influenced, VP Menon let them keep it all.

5. The time of the Accession was the time when the Royalty had been shooting people down for about 16 years under Sir. CP's Divanship. Understandably, the people would have shot them all after Independence. They used the sword on Sir. CP, though.

6. The Padmanabha treasure thus has nothing divine about it. It was the Royalty’s slush get-away money. It has blood on it. Only what is left of it after private utilisation through the years, is now being discovered.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE PADMANABHA TREASURES

A ‘rationalist’ of the conservative genre, opined on TV tonight that the wealth is the people’s and not of the Temple or the Royalty. It should therefore, be converted into currency and utilised to uplift the poor, to raise the BPL folks higher, and for their education and health care. Mr. P.J.Cherian of the Pattanam excavation also endorsed his views. I pity their intelligence, if any.

Churches and mosques also have such hidden treasure, if not already stolen by the Committees. If the Supreme Court or any government tries to excavate them, they would feel the real heat.

Left to myself, I find that the antique value of the stuff can never be estimated nor confirmed. It should therefore be converted into a highly secure Museum which might in time, become the greatest in the world. [I agree that valuables from Trivandrum museum are regularly pilfered.]

However, this is not likely to happen. Sonia Gandhi’s family runs an Indian antique shop in Italy. Subramanian Swami has spoken of it. Stolen antiques from Indian temples used to be smuggled out of India to Italy with the help of the LTTE.

As soon as the first UPA government took charge, the Italian PM was one of the first visitors to India. 15 agreements were signed without much publicity. One of the agreements stipulated that Italian companies be ‘consulted’ and allowed to manage all Indian archeological sites and antique stuff. [Another was to contract the entire Chandrayaan to Italian companies]. Sooner or later therefore, the Italians might step in in the matter of the Padmanabha treasures. If Oommen Chandy plays along, he might even overtake AK Anthony and be President of India soon, as reward.

THIS SHOULD BE STOPPED AT ALL COSTS.