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God's own kingdom

God's own kingdom

Author: M.G.S. Narayanan
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 9, 2011
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gods-own-kingdom/815016/0

Introduction: How, over the centuries, the Sree Pandmanabhaswamy temple became central to Travancore

The temple of Sree Padmanabha, suddenly in the news for the immense treasure found in its vaults, is located in Thiruvananthapuram. You now know it as the capital of Kerala, but it is also the old capital of the kingdom of Travancore. The shrine is first known from the Tamil devotional poems of Nammalvar on the Vishnu temples of Malai Nadu (Malabar). This Alvar, the last of the 12 great Vaishnava saints of the Bhakti movement in south India, lived at the close of 9th century AD, when Kerala was still part of ancient Tamizhakam - both in language and culture.

The huge idol of Padmanabha reclining on a serpent bed, with a padma projecting from his naabhi (naval), is a unique and impressive product of the early Pandyan style of sculpture. The temple, in fact, belonged to the Ay (Yadava) chieftains, who claimed kinship with Krishna of Dwaraka, in the Sangam age. The territories of Ay (Aynad) and Vel (Venad) were finally absorbed in the Kerala kingdom of the Cheraman Perumals in the 9th century. It is to this period that the small granite central shrine belongs. There have been several attempts since, in different periods, to renovate, add or modify the temple structure.

Following the disintegration of the Chera kingdom after the mysterious disappearance of the last Cheraman Perumal Rama Kulasekhara in 12th century, feudatory chiefdoms emerged as independent principalities. Venad and Aynad then combined to become the medieval kingdom of Travancore. It was only in the 18th century that Marthanda Varma conquered several feudal chiefdoms and created a strong monarchy in Travancore. Part of the wealth confiscated by Ramayyan, his Brahmin commander, from temples and palaces, were donated to the Sree Padmanabha shrine. The management of the affairs and properties of the temple had been entrusted to a royal committee of eight Brahmins and the king - called Ettara Yogam. They were armed with great powers, but the temple administration was clearly separated from general administration.

The temples of Kerala were vibrant centres of religious, economic and social life, and they kept the gold, silver and precious stones that were donated. Many people, in fact, surrendered their estates to the temple and accepted the status of tenants for the sake of the security that god's protection guaranteed. The medieval village assembly known as the sabha, met and transacted business on temple premises. The deity of the village temple was the president of this sabha. He was a legal entity, possessed wealth and political powers, and everything was done in his name.

Medieval inscriptions proclaim that violation of temple property shall be equated with the commitment of pancha maha paatakas (five great sins) and punished with confiscation of property, fines and excommunication. Thus civil offences were transformed into moral sins and the fear of god instilled into the minds of the nobility and common people. Temples were turned into forts - the term matil (fort) was employed for them - and developed into autonomous corporations capable of bringing kings and lords to discipline. There are several instances of kings offering expiation for sins like murder and plunder. They were made to offer golden images and surrender vast estates. In fact, the last Cheraman Perumal was made to undertake such an atonement at a great assembly in the Rameswaram temple at Kollam.

Marthanda Varma adopted this model of village temples and assemblies when he became the ruler of a strong kingdom. He surrendered his kingdom to Sree Padmanabha through trippadi danam, that is, a gift at the lord's doorsteps, and governed the country as Padmanabha Dasa, the servant of Padmanabha. Thus he made the monarchy even stronger by invoking divine grace. Wealth and governance of the royal temple was separated from general administration. There are many hundreds of documents related to the temple, called Matilakam Granthavari. A few hundreds have been edited and published by the great poet Ulloor S. Parameswara Aiyar on behalf of the government of Travancore.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the temple enjoyed an annual revenue of Rs 75,000 from its landed estates, besides a large income from donations, gifts of expiation, rent on leased compounds and fields and interest on gold deposits and mortgages.

Claiming the enormous temple wealth as tax money of the people and public money is illegal and unacceptable. In a sense, it is the geographical situation of Kerala at the southern end of the peninsula, far from the path of invaders, which preserved the treasures for a thousand years during which there was no successful invasion of this part of Kerala. Also, the rulers took great care to keep the wealth secure, as revealed by the fortification and detailed documentation. But it does not mean that all of it is to be put back into those black holes. We have the model of Tirupathi temple in using god's wealth for man's welfare. We should envisage a system for making this golden treasure useful.

- The writer is a historian and former chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research


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