“I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country,  such high moral values,  people of such caliber that I do not think we would ever conquer this country unless we break the verify backbone of this nations which is her spiritual and cultural heritage”. This is part of Lord Macaulay’s address to the British parliament in February 1835. If we get a glimpse of that majestic past at the Padmanabhaswamy temple at Thiruvananthapuram, it is due to the forethought of the Maharajas of Travancore. While the whole of India was plundered by invaders and plunderers, the treasures were so effectively preserved by innovative methods by Tranvancore ruling dynasty behind the screen of the 18 foot reclining idol of Anathasayanam. The administrative control of the vaults was also imaginative that the chief priest of the temple who was given the charge of the keys to the vault would have only a term of 3 years and then debarred from taking up any other assignments, similar to what Pandit Nehru started a very healthy tradition in respect of the Army chiefs in India.  It goes to prove the exemplary unselfish ethics of serving the people by the Maharajas. Elsewhere in India the wealth exposed to the invaders was plundered by the British. The Moguls also plundered the treasures and amassed it only to their  own glorification but the British plundered these out to their country. One often wonders the Egyptian civilization has something to show off about their glorious past whereas we do not have any physical proof except spiritual proof. Here is a glimpse of our past. Today it is difficult to guard this culture from our own followers of British and we ourselves have become thieves, and plunderers of public wealth. The statement of Chief Minister of Kerala is encouraging that the treasure belongs to the temple and that it is the responsibility of the State to take charge of its security.

Dr M R Iyer
Mumbai