Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple
This is one of the most mysterious and fascinating temples in Kerala. It is situated in the state capital of Kerala, called Thiruvanantapuram which means the city of Lord Ananta. This refers to Lord Vishnu known as Sri Padmanabha Swami in this temple. He is the tutelary deity of the royal family of Travancore. The present prince, known as Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, is the trustee of the temple.
The story goes that the great king Marthanda Varma renounced all his claims of ownership over the temple and declared himself to be only a vassal of Sri Padmanabha Swamy so in reality Lord Padmanabha himself is the owner of this temple. To this day the princes of the Travancore royalty always go to the temple in the morning and ask the Lord for permission to do whatever they have to do that day!
The discovery of the enormous treasures of this temple has suddenly brought it into the limelight. The greedy eyes of the communist government are on this treasure and they are plotting and planning how they can appropriate it for themselves. It is to the glory of the kings of Travancore that to this date none of them have ever touched this treasure. They have guarded it safely for hundreds of years for it belongs to the Lord himself and no one has a right over it! But the question arises how this much of ornaments and gold coins and other gold artefacts have been collected over the years. Was it given by someone or was it some loot from some war? Where has this come from? It was in June 27th, 2011 that this was brought to the light of all people and the Supreme Court gave the judgement to break open the vaults. Actually a true account has been given in the diary of the then reigning Prince of the Travancore State which has been recently published.
Marthanda Varma
It was the great king Martanda Varma who in the year 1462 who opened the vault and took some ornaments to adorn his beloved deity. After that if it was opened at all it was only to put in some money or jewellery that had been given by one of the members of the royal family. It was the habit of the princesses to donate their costly necklaces, waist bands and many other designer jewellery to their Lord. Thus was the treasure accumulated over the years. It was also the duty of the treasurer to record every bit of jewellery and every gold coin that was donated to the Lord. These records were kept in Palmyra leaves and tied up in bunches. They exist till today in the vaults and they give a very clear picture of how this treasure was accumulated. These were written in 4 different types of script that existed at that time. They were called “Vattayezhuthu, Kolezhuthu, Malayanma, Granthaksharam and Pazhantamil.” The oldest of these granths (as they are called) has been dated 1320. These granths also give all details of how and when the temple was renovated, what the idol is made of and the saligramas that went into it etc. They also give the names of the kings and the type of gifts they made to the Lord. Every single thing is recorded therein. It was the habit of the kings to weigh themselves in gold coins and golden bars for their birthdays and these coins would be kept in barrels and kept in the vaults. Names of all the kings who did this have been recorded. Another important offering was to make a huge golden bowl in the shape of a lotus. This would be filled with Pancha Gavyam which is a concoction made of five different things from a cow, like milk, curd, ghee, urine and dung. This is supposed to have remarkable medicinal properties and the prince apparent would dip five times in this. After this he would have darshan of the Lord and only then would he be crowned. These golden tubs would also be donated to the Lord. The kings took nothing for themselves. Even festivals were conducted with the king’s money. Not a naya paisa was taken from the vaults because it belonged to the Lord. As the prince writes in his dairy, “these things are being labelled as a kind of “treasure trove” by the papers and the media but for us this is not a treasure trove but it is the wealth of Sri Padmanabha Swamy and no one has a right to touch it!”
The idol of the presiding deity is in the form of Anantashayana or Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta or Adi Shesha. The serpent has five hoods facing inwards signifying a contemplative state. The Lords right hand is hanging down and placed over a Shiva lingam. Lakshmi Devi, the goddess of prosperity and Bhudevi the Earth goddess are on his either side. Brahma, the creator, seated on a lotus, emerges from his navel. The whole reclining figure is 18 feet in length and can only be viewed separately from three different doors. The head and chest are visible from one door, hands through the second and feet through the third.
The original figure was made of wood. During the time of the great king Marthanda Varma the old wooden idol was replaced by the one that we see today. It is made of a highly complex amalgam known as Katusarkarayogam, which defies deterioration through age despite the fact that abhishekam (ritual bath) of many different types of liquids are done over it on a daily basis. The king also arranged for 12,008 saligramas (stones which have the imprint of Vishnu in them) to be brought from the Gantaki River in Nepal. These are kept inside the murti. All these facts ensure that the murti has very powerful vibrations which can be felt by all those who go to the temple.
The mandapam or platform which is seen in front of all deities in Kerala, is a monolith that has been carved out of one massive stone which had been cut out of a rock at Thirumala about 4 miles north of the temple. It is 20 sqft in area and was installed here by the great king Marthanda Varma.
The temple has a very strict dress code and only those who are clad in white dhotis which are the typical Kerala attire for both men and women are allowed to go in. In the morning the temple is closed to all except the royal family. Until the reigning prince comes and has darshan nobody can go at that special time.
The temple is mentioned in many Puranas like the Brahma Purana, Matsya Purana, Varaha Purana, Skanda Purana, Padma Purana, Vayu Purana, Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata. It has been referred to in the Sangam period of literature between 500 BCE and 300 CE several times. It used to be referred to as “The Golden Temple” since the walls were made of pure gold. It is also possible that even at that time the temple was extraordinarily wealthy.
The temple is ranked as one of the 108 divya desams of the Vaishnavites. The Bhagavata Purana mentions that Balarama, the elder brother of Lord Krishna had visited this temple which makes it out to be at least 5,000 years old. Of course as is usual among most Kerala temples it is said that Lord Parasurama, the 6th incarnation of Vishnu was the one who constructed the temple.
Most temples have something called a temple “Mahatmya” which is a record of the history of the temple. The “Anantashayana Mahatmya” mentions that a Tulu Brahmin called Divakara Muni was the one who consecrated this temple. Maybe this is the reason why to this day many of the priests of the temple are Tulu Brahmins from Mangalore. Divakara Muni’s story is very similar to the one which is prevalent in Kerala about the great saint called Vilvamangala Swami.
He lived near the Anantapuram temple in Kasarkode District and used to do puja to Lord Vishnu every day without fail for many years. He used to beg him to reveal his form to him. His devotion was so great that it is said that every day Vishnu would go to him in the form of the child Krishna and sit beside him while he did his puja to the murti! The sage forgot that he was doing puja to a wooden idol while the Lord of his devotions was sitting by his side! To teach him a lesson, one day, the boy Krishna grabbed the butter that was being offered to the murti and ate it up. This enraged the sage who brushed him off with the back of his left hand and chided him for disturbing his prayers! Immediately the boy disappeared and never returned. Vilvamangala was stricken with remorse and totally bereft and wept and wept and begged Krishna to return to him. He heard a voice say, “If you want to see me, go to Anantakad or the “Unending forest”. The sage was half demented and roamed about searching for the “endless forest”. Once when he was walking along the beach he heard a low caste woman threatening her child that she would throw him into the “Anantakad.” The sage was delighted when he heard this and proceeded along the route shown to him by the woman. There he saw the boy running before him. Before he could catch him he merged into a tree. The tree fell down immediately and became the Anantashayana Murti (Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta) similar to the one we see in the temple today. But this one was really huge and his head was at Thiruvattar in Tamil Nadu and body at Thiruvanantapuram. The lotus feet were at Trippadapuram. The whole figure must have been about 8 miles long! Vilvamangala begged the Lord to become smaller so that it would be only thrice the length of the 6 foot staff he always carried in his hands while walking through the forest. But even then some trees obstructed him from having a total vision of the Lord. He could only see him in three parts as we see him now – face, body and feet. The sage fell at his feet and begged him to forgive him. He offered him a concoction of rice gruel and salt mango pickle in a coconut shell that he had obtained from the low caste woman. (This is a common food for poor people in Kerala.) This mixture is still offered to Sri Padmanabhaswamy to this day!
Sri Padmanabhaswamy
With the assistance of the king a temple was constructed at that spot known as “Anantakad Nagaraja”. This still exists to the north west of the Padmanabhaswamy temple. The swami took his samadhi here and a memorial to him has been constructed to the west of the temple. A Krishna temple was built over it known as the Vilvamangalam Sri Krishna Swami temple.
A certain amount of mystery has always surrounded this temple and lots of rumours used to be there of the underground stone vaults that contained an unimaginable amount of wealth. According to reports the last time the treasury was opened was in 1885. One of the princesses of the Travancore royal house, called Rani Lakshmi Bai has written a history of the temple in which she records that king cobras used to come to the temple whenever the temple was under threat. These snakes are said to be the guardians of the moral and material wealth of the temple. If a cobra is seen near the temple, it denotes impending doom. The Royal family as mentioned before only regarded themselves as the custodians of the temple and not the owners so they had left the treasure untouched for hundreds of years. But recently under the instigation of an old Brahmin the government ordered the stone vaults to be opened. To the amazement of all, a staggering 90,000 crore rupees worth of gold, jewels and statues have been brought to light from these stone vaults. But actually only a few of the vaults had locks that could be broken open.
The last vault is still a mystery. The door has no locks; instead it has two massive cobras painted on it. It has no bolts, latches or any other means of entry. What it contains is left to our imagination. It is believed that when a door is locked with the sign of these snakes only a great priest or sage who can chant the “Garuda Mantra” can open it. It is said that this vault is placed directly beneath the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and contains a very special yantra that emits incredible vibrations which invests tremendous power to the murti that lies just above. If it’s forcibly opened great harm will befall the person as well as the land. Therefore it has remained untouched till today. But greed knows no limits. The Kerala communist government has no regard for temples, rituals or traditions. They are out to stamp out every vestige of Hinduism in this ancient land. Who knows when they might decide to ignore the warnings and break open the door! Incidentally the man who instigated them to open the vaults in the first place died in mysterious circumstances.
I have been many times to this awe inspiring temple and every time I was filled with wonder. Whenever possible I would sit outside on the outer round and meditate and would be thrilled with the wonderful vibrations. Thankfully I have never been there since the treasure was discovered. After the discovery of the wealth, that most peaceful and spiritually charged spot has turned into a veritable battleground with police and army personnel bristling with weapons marching around grimly guarding something that has been guarded all these years by the lord himself. The whole atmosphere must have changed. I wonder if I’ll ever go again?
Breaking News
Sri Padmanabha Swamy has heard the pleas of the royal family of Travancore and the Supreme Court has decreed that the entire jurisdiction of the temple must remain with the family and not with the state government.
The princess of Travancore royal family Her Highness Aswathi Thirunal crying with tears of joy after the judgement.
Aum Namo Narayanaya!
