Written and posted by Suresh Kumar BR
Why is that a million questions are been asked, on what to do with the $22 billion assets whose inventory was done recently? Why so much cry over the temple holding the asset. WHY NOT THESE GUYS WITH SO MUCH VIGOUR GO AFTER THE BLACK MONEY STASHED IN SWISS BANKS BY THE TAX EVADERS. This temple wealth is the money, that a Kingdom has saved with the temple as its treasury, and the rulers ruled, as the servants of the deity. This is a phenomenon which present day people would not understand. This is much beyond the philanthropic work done by Warren Buffet or Bill Gates.
The person who started this case regarding Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, Mr. TP Sunderarajan, who is not giving any reports to the public, citing court gag, has a case pending against him for non payment of rentals. The complaint against him is that he has not paid rent from 1990 onwards and hence the case and eviction notice. So his views and justification to the case is not believable. He wants the treasure to be kept under state control. If that is the case, then the precedence's of various issues where, the people in charge of various governments, had manipulated the wealth of the public, tax payers money etc, politically for the benefit of the political fraternity and their dear and loved ones. The examples of Swiss Bank accounts, 2G Scams, Fodder scams, Army coffin scams, bofors scams, Edamalyar scam etc. would ask us to be careful.
As different articles in history books suggests that the other Royal Families of the Pre-independence era, misused the wealth of the country being lavishly spent on luxuries, wine and women by their rulers. Most of them had a huge number of luxurious palaces. The same is the case even today by the rulers, and Sheikhs of other countries. But just look at the Travancore Royal Family who lived a modest life, and lived as the servants of Sree Padmanabhan, and served the state and its people.
During the start, yes, Marthanda Varma had a crusade and made his empire big. But it started of, when the rebels took over the land and was unveiling anarchy in the state. Even Marthanda Varma’s life was at stake, where he was chased by the Ettu Veetil Pillmar who were greedy for power, and had to hide inside the huge hole inside a huge Jackfruit tree near Neyyatinkara. The tree which saved him was named as “Ammachi Plavu” (grandmother tree) later and protected and preserved. Marthanda organised patriotic people and fought against their enemies, and from a small Venad Swaroopam he expanded Travancore which had Nagarcoil, Kanyakumari, and 3/4th of present Kerala. But Travancore did not have a war later to expand its territories. All the wars after that was to protect the kingdom from forces of Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan.
Back to the topic, yes, the Royal Family that protected the wealth, as a gene who protects the wealth of its master without touching the wealth at all. There are newspaper reports about the Vault being opened in 1931 and rumours are that the valuables were worth 32 lakhs during that time. So, always, the royal family protected the wealth intact. The Mathilakam records always had details of the wealth in the temple cellars. The Travancore royal family could have taken it when States were annexed to Independent India. Nobody would have known. When the Indian states were merged, Independent India appointed, the then Maharaja of Travancore, Sri Chitira Thirunal, as the Raj Pramukh; but he preferred to be known as Padmanabha Dasa, and not as Raja Pramukh. The Government of India, had continued to honour the king, a tradition of 21 gun-salutes to the Lord, which was started by the British in 1750, and continued till 1970 when Privy Purse was abolished by the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi. You can see the dedication of the Travancore Royal family towards the temple, a model king and the family who showed the public what modesty is.
Why would anyone think that such a family would take away the wealth? Ok, it is good that inventory is taken and accountability is brought in. But let it be in the temple and status quo be maintained. Why should it be under the state. Let the state protect the wealth.
Let us think this way. Let all the Places of Worship, including the Hindus’, Muslims’, Sikhs’, Christians’, Jains’, Buddhists’, all of them together come in and share 10% of their wealth and start a fund with the Trustee members coming from all these groups together.
Let this fund be used for the welfare of the country, to give loans for Government infrastructure projects, Hospitals, Schools, Factories etc. Then there is growth.
If Such a fund comes in I bet that it will be much higher than the total assets of the World Bank, United States or Great Britain. I am not surprised if it equals the wealth of the rest of the world.
PLEASE DO NOT SEE SOME WEALTH SOMEWHERE AND TRY TO MINE OUT THE WEALTH. LET US ALL WORK TOGETHER
this is a very nice information. As rightly said why is the govt and the RBI intrested in a Temples money and its Vast Riches. Its been observed over a decades that most of the temples wealth (in the form of land, revenue , collections ) is taken over by the govt and used elsewhere most of which is unaccounted. It should be the duty of the ppl of the country to save and enrich the culture and utilize the revenue of the temples for protection and expense of the small temples . [ That duty that was very religiously followed and observed and by the kings ] .The Very care takers who have been doing all through centuries have to take continuous care . As said the accounts need to be maintaied . Thats it and the state can look for the audit accounts to ensure that everything is intact . If it reaches the state then there is a bigger stake of protecting the very culture and history at the stake of mans greed rather than protecting the culture and wealth .
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