God’s-own-greedy-politicians

http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/god’s-own-greedy-politicians/292278.html

The recent discovery of the enormous wealth of gold, silver, precious stones and ornaments from Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram has excited the curiosity of the world. Orthodox Hindus are overjoyed because this temple may turn out to be the wealthiest Hindu temple in the world, far exceeding the riches of the temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh and the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia.


Many greedy politicians and even scholars have come out with statements to the effect that the wealth belongs to the people and must be distributed in certain ways which they would like to prescribe. Some scholars even declared that it must be dealt with according to the Treasure Trove Act, confiscated by the state and handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India. In fact, such acts are to be applied to the unclaimed property dug up from archaeological sites. In this case there are clear records about the ownership and the trusteeship of the temple.

The kings of Travancore had the title of Sree Padmanabha Dasa, servant of Lord Padmanabha, from the time of Marthanda Varma Raja in the 18th century. They claim to be the successors of the Cheraman Perumals of Kodungalloor (Mahodayapura). When the last Cheraman Perumal, Rama Kulasekhara who came to throne in 1089 AD disappeared mysteriously at the beginning of the 12th century the feudatories (samanthas) became independent rulers of the respective principalities. The southernmost provinces of Venad and Aynad were combined to create the new kingdom of Travancore. The kings of Travancore accepted Sree Padmanabha (Vishnu reclining on the serpent with a lotus projecting from his navel) as their family deity.

The history of the temple can be traced back at least up to the 9th century when Vaishnavite saint Nammalvar composed his devotional songs about the Vishnu temples of Kerala known as Malainattu Thiruppatikal. The Padmanabhaswamy temple was recognised as one of the most sacred Vishnu temples of Kerala. There are references to this temple in several granite inscriptions on temple walls and copper plates in ‘Vattezhuthu’ script and Old Malayalam.

Following an old practice of village assemblies having the deity of the local temple as their president and acting in his name, Marthanda Varma surrendered his entire kingdom to Sree Padmanabha and offered to govern the country as his representative. This is known as Trippadidanam — the gift of the kingdom to the temple. There was a committee of eight members called Ettarayogam consisting of the Raja and eight Brahmin houses to manage the temple affairs and properties.

Fortunately, Travancore was one of the enlightened native states which kept administrative records very systematically and preserved them with great care. Documents from the 16th century onwards are available. Some years ago when this writer was nominated as chairman of the State Archives Advisory Council it was noticed that these administrative records numbered about one crore of palm leaf bundles.

The documents of the temple featuring routine payments, land revenue from temple properties, donations, offerings of gold and ornaments in the form of Prayaschitta or atonement, sales of prasadam etc, have been published under the title of Matilakam Granthavari. Great poet and scholar Ulloor S Parameswara Ayyar, who was also dewan peshkar under the monarchy of Travancore, edited and published several volumes of archival documents including a volume of records of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple.

The Travancore State Manual of 1906 by Nagam Ayya contains the following brief account:

‘The temple is under the management of a committee known as Ettarayogam composed of eight Brahmin janmis with one vote each and the Maharaja who has but half a vote. It enjoys land revenue of more than Rs 75,000 a year, and is absolutely independent of the sirkar. The temple coffers are supposed to contain large quantities of money, gold, jewels and precious stones — the offerings of ages.’ (vol. 1, page 84)

There is no mix up in the records between state revenues and the temple revenue because the temple possessed a separate administrative set up under the committee. The maharajas also donated part of the booty acquired as a result of military operations to Padmanabha. This was a traditional practice in the middle ages. Thus Chola emperors like Raja Raja and Rajendra collected much gold ornaments and utensils from Kerala in the course of their conquests in the 10th century, and donated part of it to the Brahadeeswara temple in Tanjore. A long list of this plundered wealth of Kerala which went into the coffers of the great temple can be found among the Chola copper plates.

There is a collection of copper plates from Thiruvalla Vishnu temple in central Kerala which record the items carried to Thiruvananthapuram. Part of this also seems to have been donated to Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. It is not surprising that all these contributions during a period of at least 1000 years have transformed Sree Padmanabha into a crorepati, invoking the jealousy and greed of politicians in Kerala.

Inscriptions of Kerala often contain the statement that any misuse of devaswom property (god’s property) will be treated as equal to one of the five great sins (Pancha maha pataka) described in Darmasastra literature. This must have prevented the appropriation of temple wealth by kings and officers of the temple. The geographical position of Kerala at the south end of the peninsula and the protection afforded by the Western Ghats effectively saved this land from all sorts of invasions by Hindu or Muslim rulers until the beginning of the modern era.

The constitution of India and the courts of law have granted the status of a legal entity to temple deities and entrusted the management of their property into the hands of the trustees who act singly or jointly as representatives of the deity. Therefore, this property clearly belongs to Sree Padmanabhaswamy and by virtue of the procedure of trusteeship the management rests in the hands of maharaja and his family unless there is any clause which modifies this position in the Instrument of Accession by which the native kingdom of Travancore was integrated with the Indian Union.

It is not a treasure trove nor is it public property — it is all the property of the temple. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was absolutely correct when he declared that it is temple property and assured everybody that it will receive the protection of the state. We have the model of the administration of Tirupati temple where the Lord’s property has been rightly utilised for educational, social and cultural activity for the welfare of the people.

M G S Narayanan is former chairman, Indian Council of Historical

Research, New Delhi