Any discussion about the huge wealth discovery of Lord Padmanabha would be highly inappropriate without the mention of honesty and integrity of the royal family, the true ' Padmanabha Dasas ' for their protection of wealth of lord for over a millennium.
The rise of Lord Padmanabha as the richest God outshining Lord Balaji with staggering $22 billion hidden under its vaults for over a millennium brought many people to debate about the power to manage the wealth.A school of thought says that the wealth should be used by the state for developing the infrastructure and to sponser other poverty eradication measures while the other school of thought says that the wealth belongs purely to the temple and should be maintained by a trust like TTD of lord Balaji ( Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam ) and historians argue that the wealth with its huge antique value should be moved to museums.All have their points and it would be a gross injustice to go by just one school of thought.
However , using the wealth by state makes no sense as there are and will be huge apprehensions about the way it will be used and by the prevaling length of corruption, the amount will only be transferred to some personal accounts in tax havens instead of the poor.On the other hands enabling a trust to take over such huge wealth also give rise to equal number of apprehensions with the managament of Sathya Sai Trust still fresh in the minds of the people. The recent account of many historians conclude that the wealth has not only just economic value but also huge antique value which cannot measured in monetary terms.
So, to maintain the sanctity of the treasure , to provide a meaning for the integrity of the family , and also enable the state to develop, we need a creative solution which can satisfy all schools of thought.Through this article I try to put forward a solution.
Going in to the details of the wealth of the Lord , there is a magnificient statue, lakhs of gold coins, hundrends of gold chains, numerous gold staffs , diamonds, precious stones like rubies, emaralds. The argument is beyond doubt that unique articrafts which are few should find their place in the museums.However moving majority of the articrafts to the museums will be a bad idea.
Firstly, the capacity of the museums to maintain lakhs of gold coins and other huge articrafts comes into question. By time ,they will loose their significance in the inventories of the museums as it is not possible to maintain such huge inventories.Letting the Govt. take charge of parts of welath after museums taking their share is also a terrible as they are not just gold coins or ornaments but have a history of millennium.
So here is the way.Primarily, the articrafts every single coin of lakhs of coins should have their significance and receive their due respect.Out of say 1 lakh coins some 25000 coins should find their place in museums round the country boasting of the welath of ancient India and also the integrity of the family.Remaining coins should be used to generate revenue and yet should not be destroyed.
This is possible by auctioning the coins to our countrymen with a rider that the items hold religious value and should be maintained with highest standards of purity.The rider also includes that the Govt can ask them to return if the necessity arises and they have to be submitted. India, with its growing billionaires and its religious fervour can generate huge revenues that can be used for the development of the state.Other advantage is that the coins list can be maintained by the Govt. efficiently and every coin will be maintained free of cost in the best possible manner along with revenue generation.
The apprehension that the items auctioned might be lost or destroyed or can be denied maintainance will find no place.Firstly, the buying of such articrafts for such huge sums cannot be denied maintainance by anyone.These items will be brought mostly by the rich people for religious purposes or out of interest for articrafts.So the security will also be maximum from their side.However if it is lost , there is no huge situation since it is one of many.Huge fines can be imposed on persons from whom it is lost.These items should be auctioned for different amount of time like for 2 years or 5 years or 10 years just like bonds.If at all the state feels that the coins are at a risk of loosing their value it can just collect it at the end of their term of expiry.If it is an emergency which is however highly unlikely it can order the temporary owners to return the coins in return of their money.
There are two advantages for auctioning these items for temporary periods.Firstly, on return they can be checked on how it is maintained and secondly it is a continuous revenue generation process.Their value can be increased based on their demand from time to time instead of one time sale.By this way the sanctity of every item is preserved and also maintained along with huge revenue generation.
Regarding the statue, it would be gross injustice to make its way to the museum. The diety should not be deposed of its worship. It should find its way to the temple instead of museum where it will be wroshipped for all the time to come. The statue has a capacity to make the place ,where it will be worshipped, prominent in the map of India.A temple should be established in the most backward area in the state or where the land cannot be used productively.That can bring prosperity to the place as a whole by way of religious tourism development. Once the temple is established that can generate its own revenue through donations of the donors and also by the visitors. Also the security of the diety in the temple with daily worship is better ensured rather than in museum where it is visited only by a few visitors as the statue looses its religious fervour in it.
Every artecraft which is unique should be placed in museums as protecting them is of highest imporatnce to our nation.But it is important that only those articrafts whose protection is more important than maintaing their religious fervour should be placed in museums.For example , a gold chain which weighs around 3 kilograms is found in one of the vaults. That artecraft do not have a religious fervour in itself and should be placed in museums as the characterstic of that artecraft outweighs the religious fervour in itself.
By such measures where the sanctity as well as development is acheived , the real purpose of Kings of Travancore or Padmanabha Dasas is acheived.Diversifing the wealth among various stake holders like State , temple and museums , we can have a better accountability and checks instead of concentrating the entire power to maintain the wealth solely in one hand.Here failure of one arm does not affect the wealth as a whole
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