Excavation suspended at Kerala’s Padmanabhaswamy Temple

May 6, 2014

Excavation activities which were being conducted by the Kerala Archeology Department to study the underground granite pavements, paths and artifacts at the Vadakke Nada (north entrance) of the treasure rich Padmanabhaswamy Temple at Thiruvananthapuram have been suspended by the five-member temple management committee.
The panel, constituted as per instructions of the Supreme Court, put the excavations on halt because of security reasons.
The temple grabbed worldwide attention when gold, precious stones, historical coins and other articles — which are worth over Rs 120,000 crore — were found stored in the six secret vaults (Kallaras) inside the temple on July-August, 2011. In this context the security cover of the temple was beefed up.
Recently, on the basis of a report of Gopal Subramaniam, amicus curiae appointed to look into the affairs of the temple, the apex court had ordered dissolving of the traditional temple management committee controlled by a representative of the former royalty of Travancore, the erstwhile custodians of the shrine and everything in it.
The apex court had advised the setting up of a new five-member temporary management panel headed by the district judge. The amicus curiae had found discrepancies in temple management. He also suspected pilferage of invaluable articles stored in the temple vaults.

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