The Varma family and the Padmanabhaswamy vault
The Varma family of Thiruvananthapuram (whom naive citizens of the democracy still refer to as the Travancore Royal family. Atleast, use “erstwhile” royals) is using the same trick used by their wily predecessor Marthanda Varma to prevent the opening of the ‘B’ vault of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple — leaning on religious faith. After his accession to the throne, Marthanda Varma went about a campaign of plunder and murder, running mercilessly over all the small states ruled by various local princes. He had also murdered quite a few of his relatives in this unrelenting march to unquestioned power.
This had created much ill-will among the people against him and he saw chances of rebellion. So in 1749, he laid his sword at the feet of Sri Padmanabhaswamy and thus dedicated his kingdom to the deity of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple. He got himself the title of Sri Padmanabha dasa, a servant of Padmanabha. Marthandavarma then announced that he would henceforth rule on behalf of the God. (It is recorded in Robin Jeffrey’s classic book ‘The decline of Nair dominance’ as well as in the recent ‘The Ivory throne’ by Manu.S.Pillai.). This was of course a method many other intelligent kings in other continents had used before him too.
This ruling on behalf of the God was a brilliant technique to contain rebellion in a state where the majority were God-fearing. No one would now dare to question the King, fearing the wrath of the God. He later went through the ceremony of ‘Hiranyagarbha’, a weird ceremony of passing through a golden cow (golden gau matha, in sanghi parlance), to elevate his family to Kshatriya status.
Now, when the public came to know about the untold wealth in the vaults of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple, demands were raised to open it and take an inventory of the valuables inside. The Supreme Court also said the same. But the Varma (royal) family used the Marthanda Varma technique and maintained that it would be against the wishes of Sri Padmanabha. The “Devapreshnam”, the casino game played by men to put out their wishes in the name of God, revealed in 2011 that opening the vault would cause “Vamshanasham”, the end of the whole clan.
Bhakths of the Varma family spread stories of how opening the vaults would cause such a huge flood that the entire Thiruvananthapuram city will be washed away. Another story was about a snake guarding a ‘Nagamanikyam’ and how those opening the vault would be finished off by the snake (story probably lifted from an old Balarama issue).
Last week, the Supreme Court said that the opening of the vault inside the temple to make an inventory of the valuables inside would hardly be a transgression against faith and sentiments. Yet, the Varma family continues to say that the ‘Thanthri’ of the temple will decide whether to open it. The State Government should not pay heed to these elements and should go ahead with the opening of the vault.
The family acts as if all the wealth inside is a result of the sweat and blood of their ancestors. Much of what is inside these vaults were earned through plunder and through the unjust system of taxes that Travancore had enforced. The Kingdom was known for the most inhuman tax system for every imaginable thing, much of the brunt of which was borne by the lower castes. They even had a tax imposed on the breasts of lower caste women, to allow them to cover it. It was to protest this breast tax that Nangeli that she cut off her breasts and offered it to the tax collector, who had been troubling her. As recently as 1847, the Travancore Govt owned 15,000 slaves, belonging to the Pulaya, Kurava and Paraya castes, who were leased out to private landowners. Disobedient slaves could be beaten and murdered with impunity and all slaves could be legally solved (Refer Robin Jeffrey’s ‘The Decline of Nair Dominance’ )
So, Dear Varmas, Please don’t act like you own it. It’s just a symbol of your loot and plunder. Spare poor Padmanabha, who can’t raise his voice in protest, against being used for so many centuries by your family.
