The sun is out after days of persistent rain — almost like a sign of heavenly goodwill. A police van drives into a small lane by the western entrance of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, followed by a Toyota sedan. A man in a gold-edged cotton dhoti and an accompanying wrap over his shoulders steps out of the car. 'I will ensure that all dealings in the temple are done in a transparent manner,' says Sathish Kumar, a senior bureaucrat now in charge of the Thiruvananthapuram temple.
Just a few feet away, at the end of the lane, sits lawyer Ananda Padmanabhan, who started it all. 'The battle has continued for almost seven years now. There is still no closure,' he says. Though he has been given police protection, the constable slated to guard him is nowhere to be seen. 'My offices have been vandalised and attempts have been made on my life,' the 42-year-old lawyer says.
At the centre of the controversy is the 8th-century temple of Padmanabha, or Vishnu. Ever since it hit the headlines three years ago with its treasure trove of gold and priceless gems, its fate has been and is being debated. Should it remain a privately-run body headed by Kerala's former royal family of Travancore or be accorded the status of a public temple?
'This is an unusual situation where a public temple is being looked after by an erstwhile royal family. Somewhere the court had to intervene,' says Gopal Subramaniam, amicus curiae in the case. In his scathing 575-page report submitted recently, Subramaniam highlighted various irregularities. A gold plating machine was found inside the temple premises suggesting that the original gold had been replaced. An autorickshaw driver was found dead in the temple pond and acid was thrown on a whistleblower, suggesting attempts to silence witnesses (see box).
Following the report, the apex court in an interim order on April 24 asked that the temple's accounts of the past 20 years be audited by former comptroller and auditor general (CAG) Vinod Rai.
The Supreme Court also appointed a five-member committee headed by an additional district judge to measure the wealth pouring in daily and look at the charges made by the amicus curiae. Kumar, former administrator of Kerala's Guruvayur temple, was appointed the temple's executive officer.
The royal family isn't ready yet to let go, though it has handed over the keys of the temple vault to the committee. 'We are not allowed to speak as the case is still in court,' former princess Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Laxmi Bai says.
The temple's enormous wealth — just one vault is said to have treasures worth Rs 1,00,000 crore — caught global attention when Padmanabhan filed a petition on behalf of his uncle, T.P. Sundara Rajan, a former IPS officer and advocate, asking for the protection of temple assets. A counter appeal led to a Kerala High Court judgment in 2011 where the state was asked to take over the temple. The family of the erstwhile rulers of Travancore challenged the order in the Supreme Court.
Subsequently, Vault A was opened in 2011 — revealing a gold sheaf weighing 500kg, 1,000kg of Roman gold coins, a 10-feet-long gold chain, a one-foot high statue of Vishnu studded with precious stones, a 36kg golden veil, 1,200 gold chains, three stone-studded gold crowns, boxes of diamonds and other precious stones wrapped in silk.
The temple is one of the revered landmarks of Kerala, and the former Travancore rulers are still widely popular — which prompts the state government to take a cautious approach.
'It is a sensitive issue. The present circumstances do not warrant a state takeover of the temple,' says V.S. Sivakumar, Devaswom minister who heads the various Devaswom boards in the state. Devaswom, or property of God, is a trust with nominated members managing various temples and its assets. After Independence, most Travancore temples were brought under the Devaswom board, but the control of the Padmana- bhaswamy temple was left in the hands of the Travancore family.
Though a high-level meeting convened by the chief minister will soon draft a proposal to be presented before the Supreme Court when the case comes for a hearing in August, the fate of the temple is unlikely to be decided before the report of the five-member committee, as well as that of the former CAG, is submitted.
In Kerala, meanwhile, the controversy over the temple has divided people. Marxist leader V.S. Achuthanandan has demanded a National Investigation Agency probe into the matter. 'The report has only reaffirmed my point that some unlawful activities have been happening inside the temple. Some of the treasure may have been smuggled out of the country,' he says.
Historian M.G. Sasibhooshan, who till two years ago was convinced that the former royal family could do no wrong, is now in two minds. 'I don't know whether the royal family is involved or whether the administration is at fault. But wealth has been plundered and we need to figure it out,' he says.
The wealth in the vaults — from A to F — has always fired the public's imagination. But there are also rumours about a killing curse that afflicts those who meddle with the temple's work. Sundara Rajan died of a heart attack in July 2011 — days after he, as part of a seven-member Supreme Court constituted panel, had inspected the temple vaults. Many believe that opening Vault B — which is still shut — will lead to untold calamity.
'These are all rumours spread to safeguard vested interests,' Sasibhooshan scoffs. 'Let there be a high-level enquiry,' adds historian T.P. Sankarankutty Nair, director of the Institute of Kerala Studies. 'Then we can follow the model of the Vaishno Devi temple which has the governor of the Reserve Bank of India as one of its trustees along with the state governor,' Nair says.
Writer Hridayakumari (who uses only her first name) is anguished by the turn of events. 'It is easy to make allegations. But the best testimony for the royal family is that the wealth is still there. They could have wielded power earlier and taken it off easily,' she says. 'And to the question as to what should be done with the wealth should be best left to circumstances which are beyond our foresight. We should not probe the Lord's wealth.'
Lord Padmanabha is reclining on the thousand-headed serpent Anantha, in the position of eternal siesta inside the temple's sanctum sanctorum. He is in peace, even if there is turmoil all around.
Temple turmoil
Highlights of the amicus curiae report
A gold plating machine was found in the temple
A goldsmith has admitted pilferage of 26kg of gold
Vault B has been opened more than once by a palace member and items photographed, possibly to make information available to buyers
Improper inventory, unaccounted treasures
An autorickshaw driver was found dead in a temple pond; acid was thrown on a whistleblower
Temple land and buildings may have been illegally sold
Collusion between the state and the palace in misleading the court about the temple's finances
