A royal family in India has been given the right to manage the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, one of the wealthiest places of worship in the world. When one of the vaults of the colossal centuries-old Hindu temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, was opened in 2011, it was discovered to house a sack of diamonds together with tons of gold coins and jewels supposedly worth $20 billion, and in 2015 they discovered another treasure chamber worth over $1 trillion.
After pleas of public concerns, in 1991, the supreme court of Kerala declared that, after the death of the chief, Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the Travancore dynasty had to forfeit their custody of the temple. But that decision was nullified by the Supreme Court on Monday. On Monday, the high court in India reaffirmed to the family spiritual leader, the authority of a royal palace ruling family to manage the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
“We allow the appeal of the royal family of Travancore. Death does not affect Shebaitship (management and maintenance of the deity) of the Travancore Family,” justices UU Lalit and Indu Malhotra said in their order.
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The Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple Still Has Ancient Vaults Yet To Be Unsealed.
In India, many Hindu temples are worth billions of dollars as devoted citizens offer gold and other valuables as gifts as spiritual or religious establishments to run hospitals, schools, and universities. In the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, the Tirupati temple has more than 9,000 kg of gold in savings, branding it the wealthiest Hindu temple globally. It is worth billions of rupees in bank savings. The Supreme Court stated that the royal family would establish a new council to manage the temple seven stories high and full of elegant carvings. The committee would be entitled to decide what to do with the temple’s riches, including the content of an ancient vault yet to be opened.
“A large number of devotees had prayed for us. The judgment is their victory,” Gauri Lakshmi Bai, a member of the family, told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.
