The Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple has been at the centre of a legal battle for six years. Gods can own properties in India, which might be thought to pose difficulties in even the simplest of juridical proceedings. But for purposes of landholding, gods are to be regarded as minors; they require adult (and merely mortal) guardians. Southern Kerala's former royal family are this temple’s long-time custodians. However a lawsuit filed in 2007, brought by a small group of devotees, demanded that a new guardian be appointed as, they claimed, treasure was going missing from vaults beneath the temple. The devotees also called for the vaults to be opened for examination. One of those vaults, opened briefly in 2011, confounded even the highest expectations—witnesses said the chamber contained antiques, gems and gold worth billions of dollars. One temple official put the value at $20 billion, although no proper valuation has been done.
The royals are fighting to remain at the helm of a temple now known to be one of India's richest. Kerala’s High Court ruled in 2011 that the state government should take it over. The royal family appealed to the Supreme Court. An independent report, commissioned at the national level and submitted in November, has supported the royals. It finds that they have not pinched any treasure, which the maharajahs are thought to have amassed largely during their 19th-century heyday, before donating it to the deity, and it warns against allowing the government a role: "Increasingly in this country, political parties and certain members of the political class look for priceless treasures in temples."
Strange to contemplate, but Kerala’s elected leaders have also supported the current set-up, whereby a trust headed by a member of the royal family manages the temple. The state’s coalition government—led by the Congress party, which also spearheads the coalition behind India’s national government—has a narrow four-seat majority in the 140-seat assembly. Kerala has bounced between Congress-led coalitions and Communist-led coalitions with every poll since 1982. Sajad Ibrahim, a political scientist at the University of Kerala, says the state government must have Hindus, who make up around half of the state’s population, on side if it is to secure a second term in 2016. The Nairs, an upper-caste Hindu community thought to account for around 15% of Keralites, are particularly loyal to the royals.
The Communist-led opposition have criticised the November report. “They feel that the property of the royal family is now the property of the people of Kerala…their policy is to support the common [man],” says Mr Ibrahim. The dispute has catapulted the temple to fame. The royal family used to have to cover shortfalls in the temple’s day-to-day costs, but the site now attracts streams of visitors. Worshippers pass armed police officers, walk through a metal detector, and have their bags searched before entering. Their entry fees cover daily housekeeping; the trust covers big renovation projects.
Whoever ends up running the trust, the temple and its treasure ultimately belong to Padmanabha, a version of Vishnu, whose name means “lotus-naveled one”. Inside the temple’s inner sanctum, where devotees pay an extra 100 rupees ($1.85) for a front-row spot, an 18-foot statue depicts the god reclining on a five-headed snake. “Everyone says ‘your gold’,” says Gouri Parvathi Bayi, one former royal, in response to the suggestion that her family sell the treasure to fund public projects that could help lift Keralites out of poverty. “But it’s not our gold…It’s not even the [priests’]. It belongs to the deity.”
Meanwhile, the stand-off over the tank rumbles on. Temple officials say they need more cash for such a big task. The state government says it has no duty to pitch in. Padmanabha, recumbent, offers no comment.
