Our fair but humble town of Thiruvananthapuram has been in a tizzy since it was discovered that our benign presiding deity, Lord Sree Padmanabha, had been resting on a huge treasure-trove, so fantastic that no one has been able to stop talking of it since then. This seems to have changed drastically the way we have perceived our past — or rather, the historical amnesia which we have been suffering from has been drastically accelerated. In the decades after independence, very few people, except the upper caste retainers of the Travancore royal family and the accolytes of the regime, thought that rajabharanam was a good thing. There were stories about the days immediately following the accession of Travancore to India, of how people gathered outside the Padmanabhaswamy temple, and when the Travancore Maharajah, Chithira Tirunal Balarama Varma arrived there for his daily visit, reminded him of their equality with him as citizens of India, addressing him personally and intimately … ‘Hey, Balaa’! That seems to have gone for a toss and we are back to His Golden Majesty, Ponnutampuran, though such a tampuran has no place in our political system.
The manner in which the royals of Travancore have been covered with gratitude for having sacrificed this treasure at the lotus-feet of the Lord is the best evidence for Malayalee historical amnesia/ignorance. The treasure stocked in a temple for sacred purposes is certainly not wealth amassed in the name of the people, for their well-being; indeed, it is not even wealth amassed in the name of a kingdom. What then, drives this deluge of thanks directed at the royal family of Travancore? The hidden referrent is no doubt the recent corruptions scandals, and some have made this connection explicitly. Compared with present-day democracy, how ‘pure’ was the monarchy of the past! How pious! Such admiring sighs emanate many upper-class people,of which many even happen to be descendents of the victims of the guardians of the traditional caste order,Travancore’s Hindu monarchy.The only silver lining I can think of is that we haven’t yet seen a superficial (misread) Bataillesque argument that finds evidence in the treasure for the anti-utilitarianism of the Travancore royalty.
But having evoked Bataille, let me confess that to me, the whole business of hoarding uncountable wealth in this temple by the Travancore ruler as tribute to Sree Padmanabha, who was set up by Anizham Tirunal Marthanda Varma, who founded the modern Travancore monarchy in the eighteenth century, as the ‘real ruler’ of Travancore, reeks of strategies of power.Monarachy, it appears, was largely an unfamiliar political form here. The Swaroopams which contended for power in the region that later became Travancore hardly approximated modern kingship ,as political entities, remain difficult to categorize, they being neither kingship, nor clan-rule in the simple sense (the work of Raju. S throws light on some of these complexities).The fledgling monarchy, therefore, was in need of strong support not just material, but ideological. One particularly useful strategy in this situation was to include God in the political order of things, of course, by first stripping away the claims of others to Him. This Marthanda Varma carried out, in thorough and violent style, eliminating the feudal lords who controlled the temple lands, the ettuveettil pillamaar, and limiting brahmanical authority, the ettarayogam who controlled the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. Once God was delivered exclusively to the one who would inaugurate monarchy, the symbolic structures that would bind the monarch and his subject in an affective tie could be constructed around him.
I think that it may be useful to reinterpret Bataille to make sense of these strategies. For instance, both the huge accumulation of wealth in the form of surplus sacrificed as tribute to Sree Padmanabha, as well as the fact that the descendents of the tribute-givers, the Travancore royal family, has chosen (like their predecessor) to downplay their excess, the sacrifice of immense wealth,bring power to the latter. On the one hand, sacrificing power and wealth to the diety and thus staying beyond simple utility, elevated the aspiring eighteenth century monarch above the demands of the prevailing order, affirming his individual will. On the other hand,by placing himself at the centre of the act of sacrifice by referring to himself as Padmanabhadasa, the slave of Padmanabha, he who sacrificed his will and hence in part rendered himself a sacrificial victim, he managed to infuse intimacy between himself and his subjects, that induced by the illusion that he shared the quality of their subjection, dasyam to a superior power.
This functional relationship, I think, is confirmed by the many stories in Travancore about the event of Trippadidaanam, by which the kingdom of Travancore was given away to the Lord, placed at Padmanabha’s doorstep. This idea, the story goes, occured to Marthanda Varma in the course of his violent conquest of other Swaroopams in the region. This was apparently how the brahmin ruler of Chempakassery, who also controlled the Vishnu temple of Ambalappuzha, managed to resist Marthanada Varma. Aflush with his success over Chempakassery, Marthanda Varma sought to seize the royal treasures of Chempakassery, but was told that the brahmin king was in the temple, worshhipping the deity. Marthanda Varma entered the temple, demanding the keys of the treasury. The brahmin king, however, told him that the kingdom belonged to the Lord of the temple of Ambalappuzha, and laid the keys of the temple on the top of the steps of the sanctum sanctorum. This foiled Marthanda Varma’s plans, but certainly gave him a bright idea!
These are tales that I heard in my childhood and have been certainly circulating for a very long time. What that means is that the Trippadidaanam did not always succeed in evoking subservience and affective ties among the subjects of Travancore; there were countervailing forces which did persist, especially so in these authorless stories. And I was raised by my maternal grandaunt who told me in completely unequivocal terms that I was not to believe in such silly claims as those of the Trippadidaanam. Being a staunch worshipper of Padmanabha, she considered them insulting. ” How dare he”, I remember her asking, “even think he could do it? The king of Travancore is but a puny mortal like any of us, who is he to perform daanam to Vaikunta Perumal, the Lord and Keeper of the Fourteen Worlds, the entire Universe?” One can make a donation to the temple to help in the daily worship. But when all the world belongs to the Lord, how can men who cannot but shed their bodies like worn garments, be so arrogant that they imagine to have donated the Lord’s own creation to him? And this grand-aunt was the daughter of a Nair Taravad (a joint family) who were chavers — a suicide squad — sworn to loyalty to the Travancore royal house; she was indeed loyal to the royalty and did regret its passing. But the subtle claims of Trippadidaanam had no effect on her.
From this, it appears to me that this treasure is utterly wordly and the cries to preserve its sacredness — which call for preserving status quo, or insist that only the temple can handle it — are either driven by effete nostalgia for the dead and decayed or simply mistaken. I do feel that even the historians who cite mainly legal reasons, are ultimately contributing to the fruitless exercise of protecting the now- non-existent, democratically-abolished sacred that once undergirded the oppressive authority of the Travancore monarchy that held up the horrendously violent traditional order of caste.There have been demands to utlilize the treasure in the interest of Kerala’s economy and the welfare of its people, especially, those who were oppressed by the extractions of the Travancore monarchy. Contrary to what much of the mainstream media and our fattened new elite middle-classes think, it is not these demands that are unfounded; rather, it is the continuing subjection to the strategies of power exercised by a dead monarch that is bizarre.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Irrespective of what you feel about the treasure, there’s only one “c” in “acolyte” on line 7. Thanks.
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Bigboss, yes, i noticed that, and there are also other mistakes, but nothing that changes the meaning of a sentence.
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that once undergirded the oppressive authority of the Travancore monarchy that held up the horrendously violent traditional order of caste.
Wasn’t this the same monarchy that took the step towards opening temples to all Hindus, something no other Princely state did to the best of my knowledge?
There have been demands to utlilize the treasure in the interest of Kerala’s economy and the welfare of its people
This is not easy at all. Whether you like it or not, these treasures have historical value. You cannot just auction them off and use the proceeds to add to the revenues of the Government of Kerala.
Such tricky problems exist even in a purely “secular” context. If I remember rightly, it appears in one of the episodes of the BBC classic Yes, Minister. In the episode The Moral Dimension, the Minister’s wife falls in love with a rosewater vase presented to the Minister on a visit to Qumran and wants to retain it for her personal use. However, the private secretary Bernard tells the minister that only gifts worth less than 50 pounds can be retained and everything else has to be given to the government. When the minister asks what happens to all the gifts which are retained by the government, the answer is that they gather dust in some vault. No doubt, it would be nice to auction off those gifts and use the proceeds for the general welfare of the British people but it just can’t be done at least until a sufficient time has lapsed.
Mind you, this is not a joke: if you don’t believe me, see here for examples of gifts given to the American government and what happens to them. (Perhaps somebody should file a RTI application for a list of gifts given to the Indian government and what has happened to them? Also a list of gifts given by the Indian government and the cost to the taxpayer of such gifts?)
There is another point. From our “secular” perspective, the “religious” aspects of the gifts make no sense. Fair enough, but whether we like it or not, there are “religious” people in the country and their views have to be taken into account: after all, they also pay taxes. There is little doubt that while the gifts to Padmanabha may have served a secular purpose, the rulers saw them, and continue to see them, in a religious light. (See this interview of Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Verma.) At the least, we should respect the religious sentiments behind the gifts when making a decision as to what should be done with them. Of course, this is just my opinion.
(This previous post had a misaligned html tag. I would appreciate this corrected comment being posted.)
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suresh, the defence of caste hindu order by the Travancore monarchy is neither wiped off from the historical record nor remedied in any concrete sense by that Act. The opening of the temples to lower caste people in Travancore was certainly not simply an act of magnanimity by the royalty — it was the response to a very specific political crisis that brewed in Travancore in the 1930s. Again, the Travancore regime’s welfare measures aimed at the dalit people should be read within a larger history of the threats raised by the British order and the subsequent urgency to meet the challenge. These are well-researched areas in the history of Malayalee society. I agree with you that there is no simple solution to the question of how the treasure should be handled and certainly, all shades of opinion need to be carefully heard out and considered. But at present, the nostalgic voices that grant the royalty virtues that it does not deserve are far more vociferous than other views, which would call for the dismantling of the sacred more fully.
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Devika has well read into the history of how the temple teasure at TVM has been formed.
The nostalgia for monarchy is strong even after 200 years in France and in Russia too. The
cause: the shameless greed for wealth on the parts of the so called people’s reps. The kings of yore at least kept this immense wealth in the country. What about our present day
rulers who loot the treasury (so you and me) and open huge deposits in Swiss banks and
invest in finciall paradises! Whatever the origin of those treaures and royal maneuvres to
amass them, it should now be considered as public heritage of the state. It could well be
exposed in a museum as there is history, artisanry and tradion woven into them. The way
republican, regicide France manages their earstwhile kings’ palaces and private treasures
may serve us as a guide. One has only to look at the way how Versailles Palace is tuned
into an attractive tourist destination. I remember my first visit to TVM. We wanted to visit
Kanakakkunnu Palace and lo it was closed being weekend. Now in Paris the museums
are opened on weekends. They are closed on tuesdays! If only we could do effective
culture/heritage management. to our advantage> Auctioneering these treasures will be a
blunder, they will pass into private collections and a good chunk of the proceeds will go
into greedy politicians’! pockets.
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Caste = Corruption
This wealth is accumulated by the Forward caste by exploiting/killing BC/SC/ST/Minority communities in useless/clueless wars.
Govt must distribute this temple wealth to BC/SC/ST/Minority communities.
Otherwise we’ll seek autonomy from India by invoking the 1932 Round Table Conference Resolution via a Bill in Indian Parliament.
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And how would you seek autonomy sir.
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wow……and what you will call that land of pure..bcstan/scstan/ststan?
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The Rajabakhtars conveniently forget another issue , the crisis involving the hesistance of the Travancore royals in joining the Indian Union. The American model story was accorded to the Divan CP alone
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of course we should respect diffrent shades of religious sentiments and their right to insult and perpetrate atrocities on the dalits, because uppercaste believe in such sentiments!. And call for a democratic debate on how much of it can be accomodated. In the name of religion, can anything be allowed
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There is an Arcot Nawab at Madras even today. Yes, the current heir from that lineage (Nawab of Arcot) is called as Arcot of Nawab and every year state government provides him money for maintainance of himself, his family, the servants at his palace and he stays in a palatial building in a ground at the heart of the city, Royapettai. Perhaps there may be many such persons who are supported by state/central governments like this.You can google and find more details about the Nawabs of Arcot. Until the privy purses were abolished the centre was paying the erstwhile princes/kings a sum every year.
Taj Mahal was built perhaps on the blood and sweat of laborers most of whom might have been dalits. Will Devika suggest Taj Mahal be auctioned off and distribute the proceeds to Dalits in and around Agra. If Devika is for this then ‘ demands to utlilize the treasure in the interest of Kerala’s economy and the welfare of its people, especially, those who were oppressed by the extractions of the Travancore monarchy’ makes sense.
Devika invokes history but forgets to extend the same logic to the palace of muslim kings, the treasures in Salar Jung museum etc. Perhaps that is called secular amnesia :).
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From this, it appears to me that this treasure is utterly wordly and the cries to preserve its sacredness — which call for preserving status quo, or insist that only the temple can handle it — are either driven by effete nostalgia for the dead and decayed or simply mistaken
Could there be a third explanation? It is not an unheard of practice in Kerala that temple trustees, Devaswom board officials etc. pilfer away the treasures of temples, temples that have much less wealth than that revealed in the Padmanabha temple. In fact, such thefts happen with depressing regularity in the state, one of the most egregious examples in recent times is the ‘missing’ golden articles of Poornathrayeesa temple in Tripunithura – incidentally, those articles originally belonged to the erstwhile Cochin royal family. It seems to me that such sentiments are more likely to play a role in those demands than a nostalgia for dead kings and kingdoms. The pious rightly fear that handing over the treasure to the government will end up in an open season of loot by government officials and politicians.
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I completely agree with Murali. In fact the debate is not about nostalgia for the monarchy just because those sentiments are dominant. The issue that has not been touched at all and which is at the core of the pro-royal views is the pilferage underway in all Hindu temples controlled by Devaswom boards. In fact the educational budget of Kerala IS already supported by temple funds that go into government coffers. Sabarimala makes the government of Kerala an astounding amount of money every year but the conditions endured by pilgrims there is heinous. No drinking water, sanitation or roads on an arduous trek up mountains for pilgrims from all over India who reach the temple by rail and road. In a situation where there os a drastic need to severe temples from government control, it is no surprise chief minister chandy said the temple would retain it’s wealth. Hindus have no trust in the government protecting their places of worship or facilitating worship. A regular temple- goer, my mother, notes with sadness how huge lamps and other sacred artifacts go regularly missing from the temples under the pretext of protecting them. Seen in this context the nostalgia for a dead monarchy is not so bizarre. What might have been strategies of power are plain strategies of religious sustenance today.
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According to rajabhaktas , since modern democracy is corrupt and bureaucrats prone to theft, most probably they will start a movement to give back the country to some ludicrous king. The spin doctors really deserves kudos!
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Make your own money everyone! Hands off what belongs to someone else. The Maharajas had their day and made a sweet pile. Now just let them have it, I am sure they will use it responsibly. The public really has no claim on it.
Going by the logic, the crown jewels of the england should be returned to us. The golden domes of Samarkand should be returned to us. They won’t be, so no point targeting the King of Travancore just because he’s withing range.
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