In a previous post, I had written about gods in India that not only own billions, but also want to try their luck in stocks and shares. An article I saw today reports an ongoing treasure hunt in Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple in Trivandrum, Kerala that has exceeded INR 90,000 crore ($20 bn) at the time of reporting. At a time that fake gods and their trusts are under investigation, this is fun stuff.
The temple website itself reports -
The temple website itself reports -
Around 90,000 crore worth treasure (Nidhi) has been found in the secret cellars of the famous Kerala Temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu - Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram). The 7 member paper appointed by the Supreme Court of India, has been preparing the list of valuable found in the cellars of Sri Padmanabhaswami Temple. The temple has 6 Secret Cellars (Nilavara – a place to keep assets safe) from Cellar A to Cellar F. Opening of each of these chambers is revealing a virtual treasure trove with precious diamonds, golden ornaments, emeralds, jewelleries, rare antique silver and brass platters and golden idols...TOI helpfully reports that this exceeds Kerala's public debt which is around INR 71,000 crore - fair enough that there are debates on whether the treasure belongs to the state treasury or the temple. Will Padmanabha Swamy at least pay an inheritance tax? or a windfall gains tax, maybe?
Insane. This is not too much less than the entire assets of the Catholic church, and they pillaged an entire continent for a couple of hundred of years to acquire their wealth.
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