The Hidden Treasure of Padmanabhaswamy Temple

What if you heard a rumour that there is a secret vault in a temple in Kerala, filled with billions of dollars in treasure… but no one dares open it because of an ancient curse? I for one, might think it is the plot of the next Indiana Jones movie. Except it’s real.

 

The Padmanabhaswamy Temple

 

This is the story of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram - one of the richest temples on earth. Beneath its stone floors lie six underground vaults, labelled A through F, sealed for centuries.

 

Plan of the temple complex_©https://miro.medium.com

 

In 2011, India’s Supreme Court authorised the opening of five of them - A, C, D, E, and F - and what they found stunned the world.

Inside were treasures valued at over $22 billion:

• golden idols wearing 18-foot diamond necklaces

• a pure gold throne

• thousands of pounds of ancient gold coins, some from 200 B.C.

Treasures unearthed from the five opened vaults. 

But Vault B was left untouched.

 

For centuries, it has been considered too sacred - and too dangerous - to open. Local sadhus claim its steel door is sealed with a Naga Bandham, a serpent lock that can only be opened by a highly learned sadhu reciting the Garuda Mantra.

 

A 1930s account by Emily Gilchrist Hatch even describes a group trying to open it - only to flee when they found it filled with cobras.

 

But others, like Auditor General Vinod Rai, say Vault B has been opened quietly in recent decades.

 

Still, today, it remains sealed, leaving us to only imagine the treasures, and mysteries, behind the unopenable steel doors.