Travancore royal dynasty will continue to keep control of world's richest temple - Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple

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World’s richest temple’s administration with the
Travancore royal family

            Picture courtesy Arun Thottathil
The royal family of Travancore on 13th July 2020 won a nine-year legal battle in the Supreme Court for control of the world’s richest temple, the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.

India’s Apex court upheld the administrative rights of the erstwhile Travancore royal family over the temple, and asked the temporary administrative committee headed by a district judge to continue until a new governing panel with representatives of the state government and the royal family is constituted. The committee will have only Hindus as its members. It will decide on the question of unlocking Vault B, a large mysterious chamber in the temple which has remained untouched on account of lore that its opening will spell doom for whoever opens it. The bench did not accept the Kerala government’s plea to nominate a civil servant as the head of the committee.

Picture courtesy Resmi Varma

The Supreme Court bench, consisting of Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice Indu Malhotra, quashed the Kerala High Court order of January 31, 2011 which asked the Kerala government to take over and manage the temple. The Kerala High Court had ruled that since the death of the last ruling Maharajah of the princely state of Travancore, Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, in 1991, the royal family’s rights over the temple ceased. However, the Supreme Court observed that death of the last ruler would not affect the royal family’s rights over the temple.

Picture courtesy Resmi Varma

According to the apex court, though the temple will remain a public place of worship, the right of the royal family in its administration cannot be denied. “Death will not affect the rights of shebaitship of the family over the deity and they will survive as per custom,” the Supreme Court observed. A member of the royal family, Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court and obtained an interim stay of the High Court verdict in May 2011.

The Travancore kings had ruled the central and southern Kerala and some parts of Tamil Nadu before integration of the princely state with the Indian Union in 1947 and had built the architectural grandeur in the 18th century that still remains the iconic landmark of the capital city.





Comments

  1. ash13 July 2020 at 08:48

    Ultimately this verdict is the victory of millions of Hindu Devotees of Sree padmanabha Swamy.

    ReplyDelete

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