Read more : gold treasure , kohinoor , pepper trade , sree padmanabha swamy temple
KOCHI (Commodity Online): The huge treasure discovered at Sree Padmanabha swami temple in Thiruvananthapuram has awakened sleeping historians of the state and also others as they are now eagerly searching for some documental evidences to relate the wealth amounted to a whopping $22 billion.
Although all are agreed on one point, the temple situated almost on the southern part of Indian peninsula is never under attack from a foreign invader or even from neighboring kingdoms, thus ensuring that the treasure were never touched by any invaders.
But how come this huge treasure gets piled up? For this, many historians are of the opinion that the valuables were donated to the temple by devotees over hundreds of years, and the erstwhile royal family of Travancore has been the custodian of the treasures.
But another major theory coming up nowadays is related with Kerala’s famous Pepper trade. According to M G Sashibhushan, renowned historian, the bulk of the treasure may have come from the well established pepper trade during those years as demand for pepper from Europeans is enormous.
The Europeans consider pepper more valuable than Gold and often exchange gold for pepper during those years.
Another important factor for the gold mountain at the temple is the Temple Treasury, a separate state treasury for temple related expenses and accounts which was kept apart from the common state treasury by the kings who ruled Travancore for 300 years.
Revenue from the pepper trade goes directly to the king and he will deposit it to the temple treasury after his private expenses, according to Sasibhushan. These treasuries are called ‘Mulakumadiseela’ which means ‘pepper earnings’ and a separate minister was allotted to manage the enormous wealth that simply flowing to it due to the flourishing Pepper trade with Europeans.
Europeans, who came to India before the British, were also generous in their offerings to the king and might have donated huge quantities of Gold especially in coin forms to the king, according to historians.
Other kingdoms around Travancore were lesser states and were forced to donate to the powerful state as protection money, they added.
Most importantly, rulers of Travancore are known for their humility and during the period of the most powerful ruler Marthanda Varma, donated everything including the kingdom to Sree Padmanabhan, the deity.
All the valuables in the kingdom was shifted to the temple during that time and kings and other rulers were only adding to that wealth over the years, according to some other historians.
British rulers never doubted that the temple contains this much wealth and that is another key point for the enormous find. They could have easily shifted it across to Britain like in the case of ‘Kohinoor diamond’ and ‘Mayoora Simhasanam’ argues some.
Kerala’s pepper monopoly during those years has definitely played a major role in contributing to the enormous wealth discovered at the temple, many believe.
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