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Home , Hinduism in Kerala, Kowdiar Palace, Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Vishnu

The Sri , in Trivandrum, has been amassing gold for centuries. Photograph by Chiara Goia.

TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 48—133SC.—live art R22131—Extremely Critical photograph to be watched throughout the entire press run a reporter at large THE SECRET OF THE TEMPLE

The discovery of treasure worth billions of dollars shakes southern . By JAKE HALPERN

obody knew for certain what was ever wealth accumulates belongs to the that a series of kallaras—treasure vaults— hidden beneath the ancient Sri . Padmanabhan told me that it had existed beneath the temple, and that they PadmanabhaswamyN temple, in Trivan- become his driving purpose in life to were being looted. In any case, the tem- drum, India. But a lawyer named Ananda serve and, in so doing, protect the ple was poorly guarded; as one member Padmanabhan had a hunch. According deity’s hoard. He explained, “In of the royal family told me, until recently to legend, treasure was sealed in the tem- ’s , he says we are security at the temple consisted of men ple vaults, and Padmanabhan, who was only small things before the great lord. “holding wooden sticks.” passionate about history, knew that in So if he says, ‘Dance,’ we dance, and if he The temple’s executive, Sasidharan centuries past maharajas had performed says, ‘Sit,’ we sit. I am just a mosquito be- , denied the charges of mismanage- a ceremony in which they weighed local fore him.” ment and said, in a sworn statement, that princes approaching adulthood, then do- can actually own property in “the allegation that there is a treasure- nated to the temple an equivalent weight India, though the law treats them as mi- hoard kept in some kallaras is false”; there in gold. Padmanabhan believed that nors and they must be represented by an was nothing beneath the temple except a these riches were still hidden in the base- official guardian. At the Sri Padmana­ few unused rooms “covered with cob- ment, uncounted and unguarded. bhaswamy temple, the Maharaja of Tra- webs and dust.” The plaintiffs, Nair said, Padmanabhan, who is thirty-nine, vancore has this role. was a were spreading “old wives’ tales and gos- has spent his life in Trivandrum, which kingdom that once encompassed much of sipy rumors.” is at the southwestern tip of India, in the southern India. Although it ceased to Padmanabhan took me back to his state of . His home and his law exist in 1947, when India became inde- office, which is filled with books and has office are on historic Street, just pendent, the maharajas have continued to two swords on display. He sat behind a outside the gates of the temple, which preside over the temple, both as spiritual large desk and asked me if I wanted tea. has a monumental seven-story tower leaders and as custodians of the deity’s When I said yes, he picked up a remote whose pale granite façade is a tapestry of wealth. For centuries, the royal family’s control with a single button and pressed stone, etched with ornate images of , management of the temple received little it. A clerk soon arrived, carrying a tray nymphs, sprites, and demons. On the scrutiny: there were no complete or easily with two glasses of tea. day that I had arranged to meet Padma- accessible rec­ords of what the deity I asked Padmanabhan what had nabhan, in mid-October, I found him in owned, or how the maharaja used this made him so confident that there was the middle of the street, barefoot, in a wealth to maintain the temple. Nobody treasure. “These are all historical books,” downpour. He was staring at the temple, challenged the arrangement until 2007, he said, gesturing at his library. “It is all as if in a . I tried to get his atten- when Padmanabhan brought a lawsuit here.” He pressed the remote control tion, but couldn’t. Eventually, a clerk against the temple administration, on be- again, and the clerk reappeared. Padma- from his office brought him an umbrella, half of two devotees. nabhan uttered a command in Malay- which he took without turning his head. Padmanabhan and his clients argued alam, the regional language. The clerk After several minutes, Padmanabhan that the head of the royal family, ninety- squeezed between the back of Padma- looked at me, smiled, and explained that year-old , had mis- nabhan’s chair and a bookcase, removed he had been praying. There was a festival managed the site, and that the govern- a large volume, handed it over, and van- that day, and the temple’s custodians had ment should appoint a new trustee to ished. Padmanabhan opened the book to removed an idol from the sanctum sanc- safeguard the deity’s wealth. Even a chapter on the temple, and read aloud torum and were parading it around a though Varma is not officially a maha- a sentence that he had underlined: “A courtyard. He was hoping to get a , as his ancestors were, he is revered in cellar underneath the shrine secures the glimpse of it. The idol, he told me, “is Kerala, and many of his supporters refer temple jewels.” like an of , so it is as if to him as the King. Padmanabhan Perhaps I looked unconvinced, be- God himself is coming out of the tem- thought that his lawsuit might prove un- cause Padmanabhan pressed his remote ple.” Like many observant , Pad- popular, but before long several other In- control once again. The clerk returned manabhan believes that a temple’s dians joined the case, including the leader and retrieved another book. Padmana­ deity—in this case, the supreme god of a union of temple employees, who be- bhan read me a passage noting that, in Vishnu—resides within its walls. Wor- lieved that treasures had been taken from 1855, the regional government had shippers come to make offerings of the site. “faced financial difficulties” and, to cover flowers, incense, silver, and gold. What- In the lawsuit, Padmanabhan alleged its expenses, had taken out a sizable loan

THE NEW YORKER, APRIL 30, 2012 49

TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 49—133SC. from the temple. Padmanabhan said, that,” he told me, somewhat defensively. temple’s wealth. One of the most popular “People who studied history knew that “It was not the concern of us historians to books was written by a member of the treasure was there.” study the wealth of the temples. It was be- royal family, Princess Bayi; it yond our jurisdiction.” makes no mention of a treasury, or of un- he temple amassed much of its riches He motioned to me to follow him into derground kallaras. However, I did come in the early eighteenth century. At his living room. On the walls were black- across a tantalizing account, from 1870, of theT time, the Maharaja of Travancore was and-white photographs of his deceased life in Trivandrum by a British missionary battling local chieftains. His main rivals relatives. Several photographs were named Samuel Mateer. After noting that were known, collectively, as the of adorned with flowers. Nair, like many Europeans were prevented, “by native the Eight Houses. One day, Hindus, reveres his ancestors prejudice,” from entering the temple, he these men gathered at an inn, almost as deities; one of his added, “It is said that there is a deep well south of Trivandrum, and grandfathers, he said, had inside the temple, into which immense plotted to assassinate him, kept his most valuable posses- riches are thrown year by year; and in an- during a festival at the Sri sions in a small wooden box, other place, in a hollow covered by a stone, Padmanabhaswamy temple. which Nair had inherited. a great golden lamp, which was lit over The plan might have suc- “I’ve never ventured to open 120 years ago and still continues burning.” ceeded had it not been for an it,” he said. One day, I visited the central archive of old man—the keeper of the Why not? Trivandrum, whose records go back to well attached to the inn—who “Probably it contains the thirteen-hundreds. At first glance, the overheard the conspirators wealth, probably it contains a place looked like a warehouse for wicker and sent word to the Maharaja. On the diary and some letters written by him,” he mats. Until a century ago, scribes, using day of the festival, the Maharaja showed said. Many people in India had boxes like metal styluses, recorded the temple’s ac- up at the temple armed, with a contingent this. “Sometimes these boxes contain tivities on long palm leaves, and the ar- of soldiers; he eventually ordered a num- valuables and sometimes nothing—but, chive’s hallways were lined with shelves ber of rebels to be executed, seized their because of our belief in ancestors, we don’t containing bundles of dried fronds. An wealth, levelled their homes, and sold their care to open it. We keep them as some- archivist showed me one leaf that was a wives and children into slavery. thing almost divine.” yard long and an inch wide. It was the The Maharaja went on to conquer Nair offered to show me the box, but original deed from 1750, in which the nearby kingdoms, whose wealth was con- his house was in disarray because of a con- Maharaja gave his kingdom to the deity. siderable. As the writer Gurcharan Das has struction project; after searching for a few There were ten million leaves like it in the chronicled, Indian kings and merchants minutes, he told me that he wasn’t certain archive. “A careful researcher who read had been accumulating profits from the where it was. He didn’t seem particularly through these leaves would get a sense of spice trade for nearly two thousand years. concerned. His relaxed attitude about his the wealth hidden in the temple,” an ar- In ancient Rome, senators lamented that grandfather’s box seemed similar to his chivist told me. “But it would be a big local women used too many Indian luxu- feelings about the temple’s treasury. Did task—an enormous task.” ries, and, in 77 A.D., Pliny the Elder pro- he ever worry that someone might try to claimed that India had become “the sink of rob the site? No, he said. “Whatever is Chandrankutty is a leader of the In- the world’s gold.” In the sixteenth century, there will be preserved by the deity.” dian National Trade Union Con- the Portuguese echoed this sentiment, Like Nair, most residents of Trivan- Rgress—the. union that lent its support to complaining that too much of their silver drum had not been clamoring for the tem- Padmanabhan’s suit. In Trivandrum, the from the New World was going to India; ple’s vaults to be searched. This had ini- organization represents roughly fifty tem- after the British arrived on the subconti- tially puzzled me. In America—a nation of ple employees, including clerks, sweepers, nent, they made similar protests. conspiracy-obsessed newshounds that and priests. Some of these members have The historian T. P. Sankrankutty Nair places high value on “closure”—it’s incon- reported that valuables have been stolen has written several books about the King- ceivable that a mysterious, locked door from the temple, including a large ivory dom of Travancore. When I visited him would be left alone. (Recall Geraldo Rivera flute and an ancient ring adorned with at his home, in Trivandrum, he told me breaking into Al Capone’s vault, in the nine precious stones. that the Maharaja “was a very cruel man” nineteen-eighties.) But in India the wealth When I met with Chandrankutty, at who, after murdering so many, yearned stored in the vaults of Hindu temples is the union office, he offered more details, for absolution. “As repentance, he dedi- viewed largely in spiritual, not monetary, alleging that the flute was taken from a cated his entire kingdom to God, in terms. William Harman, a scholar of Hin- storage area containing ceremonial items, 1750,” Nair explained. “Whatever things duism at the University of Tennessee, told and the ring from the finger of the main he had collected by defeating all those me, “People make deals with deities, and if idol, inside the sanctum sanctorum. Who- kings—all the valuables, gold, silver, or- they receive what they want they pay up.” ever stole the ring, he said, had replaced it naments, and coins—he gave to the Any treasure inside the Sri Padmanabha­ with a cheap replica. He suspected that Lord.” This wealth, Nair said, was locked swamy temple, Harman said, embodied other temple employees, with the knowl- up beneath the temple. But it wasn’t clear “centuries of vows.” edge of the management, were to blame. what happened to those riches over the I read several histories of Travancore Chandrankutty said that after voicing centuries. “We never cared to look into but could find no detailed accounts of the his concerns to the temple’s assistant

50 THE NEW YORKER, APRIL 30, 2012

TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 50—133SC.—live art R22145J—please inspect and report on quality officer, to no avail, he decided to join the kallaras beneath the temple: two contain- former princes by the Indian government. lawsuit. But this choice came at a price, he ing ornaments used daily by the priests, He was also permitted to keep his status claimed: another union member—a se- two containing ornaments used only at as ruler of Travancore, enabling him to nior clerk named K. Padmanabha Das— festivals, and two that were very rarely preside over the Sri Padmanabhaswamy had been nearly killed for his involvement opened. He suspected that the biggest temple. Then, in 1971, Prime Minister in the case. Chandrankutty then informed hoard was in these last two kallaras, later Indira Gandhi led a populist campaign me that Das would be arriving shortly to dubbed Vault A and Vault B. Yet he that culminated with the Twenty-sixth tell the story himself. feared that all the vaults were vulnerable Amendment to the Indian Constitution, Das, in his mid-fifties, was soft-spo- to theft, and so when he filed his lawsuit, which abolished the privy purse and ken, and covered his potbelly with a loose- in September, 2007, he requested an in- stripped royals of their “ruler” status. As fitting dhoti. He said that, as a youth, he junction to restrain the temple manage- Padmanabhan saw it, this legal change had worked at the temple as a percussion ment, and its “henchmen,” from touching meant that Marthanda Varma had no artist, in an orchestra of five players. Over the vaults. business asserting control over the temple. three decades, he had worked his way up A few days later, Marthanda Varma The lower court in Trivandrum agreed to senior clerk. Starting in 1993, Das no- gave an interview to a local - with virtually every aspect of Padmana­ ticed that objects occasionally went miss- language newspaper, the , bhan’s argument, saying, “This great tem- ing from the temple: precious stones in which he admitted that there was a “se- ple should not be left to the whims and adorning the main idol, a silver pot, the cret vault” in the temple containing fancies of certain private individuals.” The ivory flute. He said of the flute, “It was “wealth accumulated by the Travancore court ordered the government to take over quite old, made out of a single tusk of an royal family over generations.” The hoard, the temple, and appointed two commis- .” he said, had been growing since 800 A.D., sioners to serve as witnesses whenever Not long after Das learned of Padma- and included “precious gold ornaments temple workers opened a vault, including nabhan’s lawsuit, he joined it. His partic- and coins from various countries.” He those used for festival ornaments. ipation was crucial, Padmanabhan told added that he had never seen the treasure, Early one morning in October, 2008, me, because he was a credible eyewitness and that the vault had not been opened as the temple prepared to hold its biggest who had worked at the site for decades. since 1885. annual festival, Padmanabhan accompa- Das was working at the temple on the Padmanabhan was pleased to have the nied the two commissioners into a storage day that he was attacked. He says that he treasure’s existence confirmed, but he was area behind the sanctum sanctorum. saw several men attempting to load six alarmed by Varma’s suggestion that it be- Confirming Padmanabhan’s suspicions, large ceremonial lamps into a van; they longed to the royal family. (Varma’s fam- they found doors to six kallaras. They un- told him that the lamps were going to ily insists that he was misquoted.) As Pad- locked and entered the two kallaras con- Palace, where Varma resides. “I manabhan knew, after India became taining the festival ornaments, which told them, very strictly, that I wouldn’t independent, in 1947, the royal family of were later dubbed Vaults C and D. Inside, allow them to do that,” Das recalled. Travancore surrendered its power to the they found dazzling objects, including a Later that evening, as Das was returning Indian government. In return, the fami- golden bow and arrow, umbrellas made home, two men accosted him and doused ly’s leader at the time—Varma’s older with gold rods, and a golden throne for him with acid. brother—was allowed to collect a “privy the deity embedded with hundreds of Padmanabhan, hearing the news, purse,” essentially a trust fund doled out to precious gems. The items were probably rushed to the hospital. “Flesh was coming off Das’s body,” he recalled. It took Das months to recover. When I asked Padma- nabhan why Das had been attacked, he replied, “He had not yet given testimony, and they probably wanted to stop him.” The royal family denies any involve- ment in the acid incident. The family’s lawyer says that Das concocted the story, and was subsequently fired from the tem- ple for improper conduct. Das, for his part, says that he was dismissed only after he made it clear that he would not remove himself from the lawsuit. In the union office, Das told me, “I will show you what they did.” He pulled up his dhoti and his shirt, revealing ghastly scars along his thighs and his torso.

admanabhan, based on his research, Pbelieved that there were at least six

TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 51—133SC.—live art A16546 worth millions of dollars. It was difficult This special relationship, the royal family family—he had been a confidant of Var- to know if anything was missing, because contended, had not been severed by the ma’s older brother, the previous maharaja. there was no detailed registry, but the Twenty-sixth Amendment. Moreover, But he was not close to Varma. commissioners reported, among other the royals had not been involved in any Before becoming a lawyer, Sundarara- things, that someone had taken forty-four theft; on the contrary, Varma had regu- jan had been a police officer, then an agent hooks off a golden umbrella and replaced larly contributed money to make up the for the Intelligence Bureau of India. He them with hooks made from inferior temple’s budget deficits. had also served as a member of the secu- metal. The temple staff had shown “care- The legal fight intensified when Pad- rity team charged with protecting Indira lessness,” the commissioners noted, and manabhan’s seventy-year-old uncle, T. P. Gandhi. His boss at the Intelligence Bu- added that current security measures were Sundararajan—the senior partner in his reau, Mayankote Kelath Narayanan, is inadequate. law practice—joined the lawsuit. He tried now the governor of West Bengal. Nara- Padmanabhan was eager to have the to get the royal family’s appeal dismissed yanan told me that Sundararajan “had a remaining vaults opened, but he had to by filing a writ with the High Court that brilliant mind,” but that what really set wait: the royal family had appealed to the challenged Varma’s claim to authority him apart was his high ethical standards. High Court of Kerala. Lawyers for the over the temple. Sundararajan, who was “He would never make any compromises,” royal family argued that Varma’s ancestors extremely pious, quickly became the pub- Narayanan said. Sundararajan, he argued, had ruled Travancore for more than a lic face of the case. He visited the temple had “nothing to gain” by involving himself thousand years, and had a legacy of pre- many times each day, starting at 3:30 in the temple lawsuit, and had acted only siding over the temple as spiritual leaders. a.m., and looked more like a than because “he felt that things were not being For centuries, a maharaja from the family like a lawyer. He dressed in a dhoti, had a done according to the rule book.” had led processions at the temple, and had wispy white beard that trailed down to his After leaving the Intelligence Bureau, escorted the idol when it was marched to waist, and regularly smeared across his Sundararajan became a law professor, and the sea, twice a year, for a ritual bathing. forehead a , a pitchfork-shaped de- also took on public-interest cases. In one By custom, the maharaja even had to ask sign that signifies enlightenment. He had landmark suit, he helped a client claim an the deity for permission to leave town. once been regarded as a friend of the royal inheritance that was denied to her because she was a woman. He also helped a woman named Nalini Netto win a sexual- harassment lawsuit against a powerful In- dian official. Netto told me that Sunda­ rarajan had given her “the spiritual strength to stand up through the whole thing.” In January, 2011, Sundararajan’s argu- ments met with approval from the High Court of Kerala, which upheld the lower court’s ruling, saying that it was “absurd” to call Sri Padmanabhaswamy a “family temple.” Nor did the royal family have a right to oversee the temple’s wealth: “Since the deity is a perpetual minor in the eyes of the law, the court has jurisdic- tion to protect it.” The court concluded, “We feel it is high time regulatory mea- sures are made in the State to prevent plundering of public money in the name of God and faith.” The royal family appealed again—this time to the . In May, the Supreme Court made a bracing announcement. Before it ruled on the stewardship of the temple, a team of “ob- servers” would inspect the remaining vaults that supposedly contained treasure. Vaults A and B, which had “reportedly not been opened for more than a century,” would be opened, inspected, then “closed and sealed again.”

TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 52—133SC.52—133SC.—live art A16437 he inspection of these vaults took place on June 30, 2011. Sundararajan Twas among the observers, along with sev- eral archeologists and gemologists. Also in the group was C. S. Rajan, a seventy- three-year-old former judge who had sat on the Kerala High Court. The Supreme Court placed a gag order on the men who entered the vaults, and in the days that followed none of them spoke to the press, including Rajan, who refused to talk when I called him on the phone. A month later, I flew to New Delhi and showed up at his home. Be- cause I had come a long way, and his du- ties to the Supreme Court were finished, Rajan agreed to describe what he had seen. He said that it had been the greatest day of his life. Upon entering the temple, Rajan and the others headed toward the sanctum sanctorum, where the main idol reclines. “What did you think of that book that I already know The idol is a likeness of Padmanabha—a everyone else in the world’s opinion about?” slumbering god who is one of Vishnu’s many —and it contains twelve thousand and eight sacred stones •• that were collected centuries ago from the , in , and carried to outer doors, one of metal and the other of And so the gems and gold were just sit- Trivandrum by elephant. The observers wood. They entered a small room with a ting in piles on the dusty floor. It was passed through the sanctum sanctorum huge rectangular slab on the floor, like a amazing.” and visited an adjacent storage area, where toppled tombstone. It took five men more According to Rajan, the observers in- they came to the six vaults, including A than thirty minutes to move the slab. Be- structed temple employees to haul every- and B, which had metal-grille doors that neath it they found a narrow, pitch-black thing from Vault A upstairs, for inspec- looked as if they had not been opened in passage, barely wide enough for an adult tion. It took fifteen men all day. Rajan said a very long time. to get through, leading down a short that beholding the treasure was a “divine On a stone wall above Vault A was an flight of steps. It was just like the “hollow moment.” There were countless gold embossed image of a cobra. Princess Lak- covered by a stone” described by the Brit- rings, bangles, and lockets, many en- shmi Bayi, in her history of the temple, ish missionary. Before the observers de- crusted with gems. And there were gold notes that there are many stories “passed scended, a team of firemen arrived and chains, each studded with jewels and eigh- down through chronicles and word of used special equipment to pump oxygen teen feet long—the length of the main mouth” about “ of high breed” that into the enclosure. At the bottom of the idol. Rajan told me that coin experts esti- appeared when “the Temple came under stairs was the vault. mated that the vault held approximately a threat,” offering interlopers a warning. One of the observers was a fifty-nine- hundred thousand gold coins, spanning Snakes, she writes, are considered “the year-old attorney named M. Balagovin- centuries of trade: Roman, Napoleonic, guardians of the moral and material dan, who was Sundararajan’s personal Mughal, Dutch. He also described seeing wealth” of the temple. In the days to lawyer and a trusted friend. Balagovindan a set of solid-gold body armor, known as come, the image of the cobra would also spoke with me, and he recalled his an angi, built to adorn the main idol. widely be seen as an omen. first glimpse of the treasure: “When they The vault also contained loose dia- The doors to Vaults A and B required removed the granite stone, it was almost monds, rubies, emeralds, and other pre- multiple keys, which had been entrusted perfectly dark, except for a small amount cious stones. According to Balagovindan, to Varma and the temple’s current execu- of light coming in through the doorway the most impressive gems were the large tive, V. K. Harikumar. The observers behind us. As I looked into the darkened diamonds, some of which were a hundred used the keys to open the metal-grille vault, what I saw looked like stars glitter- and ten carats—“the size of a large door to Vault B, and discovered a sturdy ing in a night sky when there is no moon. thumb,” as he put it. The archeologists wooden door just behind it. They opened Diamonds and gems were sparkling, and gemologists estimated that a small this door as well, and encountered a third reflecting what little light there was. solid-gold idol of Vishnu, encrusted with door, made of iron, which was jammed Much of the wealth had originally been hundreds of gems, was worth thirty mil- shut. So they turned their attention to stored in wooden boxes, but, with time, dollars. Though Balagovindan mar- Vault A. Once again, they unlocked two the boxes had cracked and turned to dust. velled at what he saw, his client, Sunda­

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TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 53—133SC.53—133SC.—live art A16523 rarajan, appeared indifferent. “He showed no interest in the gold,” Balagovindan re- called. “He only entered to see if there Resisting Arrest were any more inner vaults, within the vault.” (There weren’t.) Sundararajan was A year and a day later the wolf stopped a true ascetic, Balagovindan said. by as planned. He made conversation So far, no one has formally calculated about this and that but you could tell the value of the treasure found in Vault A. from the way he favored his gums that all was But Harikumar, the temple’s executive— not well. Later the driving pool shifted. who has now seen the hoard on at least I had no idea that you were planning two occasions—has estimated that it is to stage an operation but it’s all right worth at least twenty billion dollars. this time. Then I read your account and Ananda Bose, the former director of the was dully impressed, right at the edge National Museum, in New Delhi, briefly of the sea where the land asserts itself. led a team that has been charged with documenting the treasure. Bose told me He told a cheering crowd the infghting was over that a proper assessment would likely take at least for that day. They had more afairs a year. He had done some research on to remember than just that one time. Why, other famed hoards—including those he went over it and that was that. Plethoras found in the tombs of the Egyptian pyra- to be announced, etc. You’re telling me. mids—and said that none of them ap- peared to rival the temple’s treasure. Warming to his theme he brought us in “Maybe once in a thousand years some- as though we belonged. Ma and I thing like this will happen—finding such decided to wait it out but here again massive wealth,” he told me. he was unyielding, hoping to lure a big-name It may always remain a mystery retailer on the strength of our fevered gain whether Vault A has ever been robbed. Harikumar initially assured me that no- body had entered it for more than a cen- dararajan couldn’t understand how his the Supreme Court asking it not to open tury, but then admitted that there were efforts had led to his becoming “ostra- Vault B, at least for the time being, as no records. As he put it, “There is no cized” and “shunned by his own people.” doing so might compromise the spiritual paper that I have to show that it was Roughly two weeks later, on July 16th, integrity of the temple. opened at such-and-such a date.” But if Sundararajan went to bed with a fever. Lakshmi Bayi, the princess who wrote there were no precise records, how could Initially, no one worried. “Why would a history of the temple, was among those he be certain that nothing had been sto- anyone think it was serious?” Padmana­ in the royal family who felt that the vault len? “I am sorry, I cannot answer that bhan said. But later that night his mother should be left undisturbed. One after- question,” he said. “It is believed that told him that his uncle was severely ill. noon, I met her at Palace, her nothing has been stolen.” Padmanabhan went to his uncle’s bedside. residence in Trivandrum. The palace, a In the days after Vault A was opened, “A little after midnight, my uncle was grand, dilapidated structure with a hun- the temple was surrounded by news crews looking better,” Padmanabhan recalled. “I dred and six rooms, is furnished with old and protesters—most of them zealous told him, ‘Don’t worry, you are perfectly teak furniture, dusty rugs, and stunning devotees, who feared that the deity’s all right.’ He replied, ‘No, I have just a few oil paintings depicting scenes from Hindu wealth would be taken from the temple. more hours left.’ ” Early that morning, epics. Stray dogs roamed the palace’s Padmanabhan and his uncle, Sundarara- Sundararajan stood up, looked around the overgrown gardens, and a member of the jan, became targets of anger. Padmana­ room at his relatives, smiled, and fell over royal family warned me not to leave my bhan received death threats; his office was dead. The next day, Indian newspapers shoes on the front stoop, as a dog might attacked, and his car was vandalized. Po- announced his death, alongside specula- take them. licemen were assigned to protect him. tion that he had succumbed to “the curse The Princess, who is petite and mid- Mobs gathered outside his office, holding of the cobra.” dle-aged, was dressed in a simple cotton posters that read “Recover the lost and en- sari. She described herself as not a “ser- croached temple property and use it for ajan told me that the innermost door vant” of the deity but his “slave.” temple needs,” and accusing Sundararajan to Vault B had three latches, and “A servant has the right to leave his of having “looted God’s property.” At one Rthat one of them was jammed, prevent- master,” she said. “If I don’t like to work point, protesters even brought in a water ing the team of observers from opening with you, I walk out and I say goodbye, buffalo—a symbol of death in Hindu- the vault. The observers considered forc- but a slave has no option of independent ism—with a placard around its neck that ing their way in, but deemed this im- action. He is forever bound to his master’s said, “I am Sundararajan.” proper; they decided to hire a locksmith. feet. So we prefer that.” Sundararajan was deeply shaken. His Then, in mid-July, before the locksmith Though she had never laid eyes on cousin N. Rangachary told me that Sun- came, the royal family sent an affidavit to Vault B, she believed that it was con-

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TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 54—133SC. there is something there, but not what they’re talking about.” Accounts of im- over the past months of quasi-activity, mense riches in the vault were “tall sto- dark with relative distress. That proved uncertain ries.” He said that Vault B should remain and doesn’t smash it all. They liked what they heard. closed for now, as a precaution, because seeing immense wealth might tempt peo- No one wanted to shoulder responsibility ple to “deplete it,” which would be the for the times and to slog of to uncertain path to “ruin.” He went on, “You have a destinies in fberglass pilot houses. hundred pounds in the bank. I have a I had no idea that you meant it to be early. hundred pounds in the bank. That man The fatal tarnish of the everyday has no pounds in the bank. So he says, ‘I groans and incites mobs to splendor will just take this money off and spend it and wrongdoing as though a tissue of sleeping cars and share it.’ What did he do? Did he were to upbraid dawn. They asked me to read make it? Did he work for it? Did he sweat of a result or temper a calamity like I was involved for it? No. It’s a polite, pressurized loot- in the unfolding reaction with everything ing.” He added, pointedly, “It’s not yours.” else, they wanted me to reside at 478 Pavilion Avenue and the story would resolve itself munifcently. s the citizens of Trivandrum debated what to do about Vault B, the royal Not in my receding horsepital. I paid familyA and officials from the temple in- my dues to the city and look vited a group of astrologers to hold a four- how out on a limb I am and you could guess day ceremony, known as a Devaprasnam, this too, you could plan more strategically. in order to ascertain the will of the deity. That’s all for now kid. Drop me a line sometime, One of the astrologers, Padmanabha seriously. Sharma, said that the key to making the —John Ashbery ceremony work was finding a child who could serve as the “instrument” through which the deity conveyed his wishes. In nected to the temple’s sanctum sancto- me that I should not broach the issue of this case, the child was a boy who was rum by a “spiritual charge,” which emitted treasure with “His Highness.” praying at the temple when the astrolo- special vibrations that could be felt only Several minutes later, a very thin - gers arrived. “It all happened as a matter “if you are exceptionally lucky.” This en- derly man, dressed in plain cotton and of destiny,” Sharma explained. ergy should not be disturbed, she told leaning heavily on a cane, made his way Sharma and the other astrologers me, and the picture of the cobra outside down the long hallway leading to the sit- made sure that the boy was clean and Vault A gave a clear warning. ting room. We soon got into a discus- shirtless, and then they seated him in I asked what would happen if the en- sion about finances, and he tried to ex- front of eight objects: a lamp, a mirror, a ergy was disturbed. The Princess told me plain what, exactly, was his wealth and piece of cloth, some grains of rice, betel a story she’d heard about an Indian tem- what was the deity’s. He said, “I have a leaves, a betel nut, an ancient gold coin, ple that contained the rarest of treasures: house, I live in it, but it isn’t mine”—it and a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. A “sa- a levitating idol. “The figure of the idol re- belonged to the deity of the temple. Did cred powder” was sprinkled on the ground mained suspended in the air,” she ex- this mean that he would never sell Pat- to create an astrological chart consisting of plained. This was a “very wonderful tom Palace? “Yeah, sure,” he replied, twelve boxes: one for each of thing,” and it continued to hover until then added, “In modern life, sometimes birth stars. The boy was presented with a workers began renovating the temple; your intention can be overruled.” When hundred and eight shells, and told suddenly, the idol came crashing down. I asked him to elaborate, he said, “Ac- to place them on the chart. As the boy ar- She worried that tampering with Vault B cording to the circumstances, whatever ranged the shells, everyone chanted might cause a similar disaster. Several may be your desire, your principles, . “We prayed to God to show the had even warned her that opening things can get out of hand.” kid the right message,” Sharma said. it would “bring danger and damage” to Our conversation turned to Vault B. Every aspect of the ceremony, he said, re- the city of Trivandrum. He told me, rather cryptically, “Of course, vealed a different message about what the A few days later, I met the head of deity was thinking. “It’s all science,” he the royal family, Marthanda Varma, at said. “It’s like the doctor who diagnoses a Pattom Palace—a vast wooden structure, disease from various symptoms.” painted white and crowned with a steep In this case, the news wasn’t good. red tile roof. Next to the palace was an Sharma concluded that the deity was not open-air garage containing vintage cars, happy. In August, Sharma told the press, including a perfectly preserved 1955 “It is advised that the wealth found in the Mercedes 180D. One of Varma’s aides chambers is not moved out. These are not escorted me into a sitting room and told just valuables but also divine, and displac-

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TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 55—133SC.—live art R22145C—please Inspect and report on Quality Trivandrum slum known as the Choola Colony. On the street, old women sorted through mounds of trash, young women sold fish covered with flies, and a child in her underpants hopped on a se- ries of boards, to avoid falling into a deep, viscous mud puddle. I met the owner of a chicken stall, a sixty-year-old man named K. S. Babu. His shop contained a cage of clucking chickens, a picture of the Virgin FPO ONLY— Mary, a tree stump for poultry butchering, and little else. Babu told me that, poor as the neighborhood was, it had been much worse before Indira Gandhi launched a 16652 anti-poverty programs, in the nineteen- eighties. “If somebody died here, no one took the body away,” he told me. “And anybody without a house could take “How much ground do you want to stand?” over someone’s place and live there. We couldn’t question anyone.” Government •• could make a big difference in people’s lives, he said. “It is necessary that we use the treasure ing this will invite the wrath of the Lord.” vised me to discuss the matter with Bala- for the well-being of the public!” Babu He warned that opening the doors to govindan, his uncle’s lawyer. went on. Despite his strong feelings, he Vault B would “bode ill for the people and When I met with Balagovindan, he cautioned me against broaching the topic for the land.” A member of the royal fam- told me a story about Sundararajan. Ac- with other residents of the Colony. “Most ily told me that the deity had already cording to Balagovindan, Sundararajan of them would explode, saying not to take made its displeasure known: “The biggest and the previous maharaja, Sri Chithira the treasure out of the temple,” he contin- proof, of course, if you can call it a proof, Thirunal, had shared secrets about the ued. “If they are Hindus, they will show is that Sundararajan has died.” temple—including the fact that in its their rage. You can’t talk to them freely as The Supreme Court responded to the treasuries were solid-gold bars. Last sum- you talk to me, because I think in the Devaprasnam with a statement: “Secret mer, after Vault A was opened—and no mind-set of a socialist.” Babu was also a Vault B is not being opened now . . . but gold bars were found—Sundararajan told Christian. In Kerala, three religions have we will make a decision and do not pro- Balagovindan that they were probably in a strong presence: a quarter of its popula- pose to hand over the decision to others. Vault B, as this tightly locked vault would tion is Muslim, roughly another quarter is Impractical or superstitious decisions be an excellent place to hide hefty amounts Christian, and the remainder is Hindu. and security can’t go hand in hand.” The of gold. I asked Babu to introduce me to Court kept delaying its decision, how- “How many gold bars might there a Hindu who would consent to be ever, and by mid-fall Vault B had still be?” I asked. interviewed. not been opened. “We have no idea,” Balagovindan said. “Talk to him,” Babu said, pointing to Around this time, I met with V. S. a slender young man walking past. Achuthanandan, a former Chief Minis- ven if Vault B is empty, the treasure “Who is he?” I asked. ter of Kerala and a leader of the state’s in Vault A could radically transform “My son.” powerful Communist Party. Achutha­ Ethe city of Trivandrum and, indeed, the The young man’s name was Ganesh; nan­dan was among the few politicians state of Kerala. If the hoard in Vault A he was twenty-seven, and an art student. who had publicly accused the royal fam- turned out to be worth half the twenty- He explained that his father had con- ily of mismanaging the temple. He called billion-dollar estimate, it would likely verted to Christianity, but he had re- the astrology ritual a “silly” ploy, staged earn enough interest in one year to cover mained Hindu. Ganesh firmly opposed by the royal family in order to prevent the cost of the major projects in the state’s taking any wealth out of the temple, and the Supreme Court from taking inven- 2012 budget, including new waste-pro- said that he avoided discussing the matter tory at the temple and implementing cessing plants, cargo ports, ambulances, with his father: “As a Hindu, I see my fa- proper security measures. office parks, hospital trauma units, and a ther and mother as gods. We won’t raise Padmanabhan, the lawsuit’s initiator, modern laboratory for monitoring food our voice against them.” felt the same way. “This business with as- and drug quality. And there would still be Ganesh took me to the cramped apart- trologers is a farce,” he told me. I asked a three-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar ment where the family lived. We passed him if he expected treasure to be found in surplus, which could be used to help Ker- through the closet-size kitchen and en- Vault B. He looked at me as if I had asked ala’s poor. tered a bedroom, where we sat on a bare an exceptionally stupid question, then ad- One morning in October, I visited a wooden ledge. Ganesh said that he gave

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TNY—2012_04_30—PAGE 56—133SC.—live art A16538 the deity whatever money he could spare, drum, there are posters of Lenin, Marx, “A great person has used this room. Why which was sometimes as little as one and Stalin. When I met with Achuthana- not preserve it?” rupee—roughly two cents. Everything in ndan, the Communist Party leader, he Our conversation was interrupted by the temple, Ganesh said, came from dev- claimed that much of the wealth donated the arrival of Padmanabhan’s seventy- otees like him, and he added, “So of by the maharaja to the temple in 1750 was five-year-old father, T. P. Krishnan, who course it belongs to God!” actually tax revenue that he had collected was Sundararajan’s older brother. Krish- Wouldn’t it be a good thing, I asked, if from other rulers; it was, in essence, the nan had come from the temple; he was the deity’s wealth were used to help peo- people’s money. This argument was prov- bare-chested and wearing a dhoti, and he ple? By that logic, Ganesh said, valuable ing a hard sell in Kerala. Several Commu- was in such poor health that he could objects should also be removed from nist activists told me that, if they kept barely walk on his own. I had a cup of tea churches and mosques. Moreover, he in- pressing for the temple treasure to be dis- with Padmanabhan and his father; after- sisted, the money would not “reach the tributed to the public, they risked alienat- ward, Padmanabhan told me that his fa- right hands.” He explained, “There are ing their Hindu constituents. “We must ther was devastated by Sundararajan’s various funds for the improvement of the have unity,” one activist told me. I asked death. “Now my father is half dead,” Colony, which are managed by govern- him what he thought Marx and Lenin Padmanabhan said. “He wasn’t like this ment officials, but these funds are not would have done. The activist, shifting in before.” used properly. Even the drainage in the his chair, replied, “When they are reincar- Padmanabhan believes that the stress Colony is not properly constructed. nated, we must ask them.” of the case, and the public’s vitriol, con- When the tsunami came, there was a fund tributed to his uncle’s sudden death. for the affected, but it hasn’t yet been used he discovery of treasure at the Sri “Death is inevitable,” he told me. “But well, either.” Many Indians share Ga- Padmanabhaswamy temple has when I lost him it was beyond words.” nesh’s frustrations. In 2011, India’s former Tsparked treasure hunts across India. In There were tears in his eyes. He said, “At telecommunications minister was arrested November, the Indian press reported that times, I even feel totally despicable.” on charges of corruption, in a scandal that the Chandrasekhara Swamy temple, near “Why?” I said. may have cost Indian taxpayers as much Chennai, also had a secret vault that “Because I am the person who put this as forty billion dollars. “If the government might hold enormous riches. In the state temple on the map and started all this,” he takes hold of the temple’s wealth, they will of , researchers are campaign- replied. loot it,” Ganesh concluded. ing to open the vaults of two ancient tem- Padmanabhan plans to return to New A group of Hindu men were standing ples. One of the researchers, Kudavayil Delhi this summer to appear before the in a muddy street, chatting amiably. They Balasubramaniyam, told me, “Maybe the Supreme Court, where he hopes to re- were adamant that no treasure be re- treasure is as big as the one at the Padma- solve the matter of the temple’s manage- moved from the temple. A street-food nabhaswamy temple.” ment and force a decision about Vault B. vender named Suresh spoke with me at The Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple In the meantime, he says, there is nothing his home, a humble concrete dwelling is now protected by metal detectors, se- to do but wait. that he had decorated with a small statue curity cameras, and more than two hun- After visiting Padmanabhan, I lin- of Buddha and pictures of his heroes: dred guards, some of whom are gered on his doorstep, staring at the tem- Jesus, Mother Teresa, Vishnu, and Ar- equipped with machine guns. Even so, ple and watching pilgrims—many of nold Schwarzenegger. He said that he did the site lacks an important security fea- them bare-chested and barefoot—walk- not trust the government to handle the ture that it once had: obscurity. Long ing down the street toward the temple’s wealth. I asked him if he had lines now form outside the temple each magnificent stone tower. I, too, felt drawn more faith in the royal family. “Yes,” he day, and devotees and pilgrims must to the place, but even today the temple is replied. “They were not like the govern- pass through security checkpoints. Ac- open only to adherents of . Al- ment officials, who are corrupt. They cording to Sanal Kumar, the former most as a consolation, I returned again to were foresighted and saved this wealth for head of security, many devotees blame the home of the old historian, Nair. I liked the generations to come, like parents who Sundararajan and his allies for these in- chatting with him about the temple’s his- are saving for their children.” There are conveniences. Padmanabhan, for his tory, and I was curious to see if he had many people who, like Suresh, feel that part, laments, “No one thinks that I had found his grandfather’s box. After serving the royal family has done an excellent job any interest in protecting the treasure.” me tea, he took me to a small room at the of protecting the deity’s hoard—and that One evening this winter, I visited Pad- back of the house, where he pointed at the the proof is the sheer quantity of treasure manabhan at his home, where he has lived bottom of a mountain of dusty objects. found in Vault A. I asked Suresh if Kera- since birth with his parents and, until re- There was the box. lans had been better off when they were cently, his uncle. He showed me his un- “There could be a treasure in there,” he ruled by maharajas. “The administration cle’s room. There was a desk with a few told me. “Yes, a small treasure—perhaps during the king’s rule was much better,” letters on it, shelves crammed with law gold, but not diamonds. My mother told he said. books, and a wooden bed frame. Sunda­ me that my grandfather used to purchase It was surprising that, in a place with rarajan, ever abstemious, had refused the gold coins of George V of England.” I rampant poverty, there wasn’t a greater comfort of a mattress. The room had not asked Nair if he had reconsidered open- demand to nationalize the treasure. In- been touched since he died. “I don’t want ing it. The old historian stared at the pile deed, at many intersections in Trivan- to change anything,” Padmanabhan said. of objects, transfixed. He said, “No. Let it

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