One of the most extraordinary and mysterious buildings ever
constructed is the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum on the far south
coast of India opposite the island of Sri Lanka, in the state of Kerala. One of
the wonders of the world, its origins lie hidden by the mists of time, yet its
oldest shrines can be found in records dating back to the 9th century. It was
dedicated to the Lord Vishnu and the centrepiece is a sublime statue of Vishnu
reclining on the back of a snake with five heads called Adisesha, the Serpent of Contemplation. The inner temple, known as the
"Sanctum Sanctorum", can only be entered by devout worshippers who
follow a strict dress-code. The biggest enigmas of the Sri
Padmanabhaswamy Temple
are the famous underground vaults or kallaras
which lie within the twenty foot thick stone foundations of the main shrine.
There are six vaults, labelled A, B, C, D, E and F, and there are endless tales
and legends associated with them, the presence of great treasures and ancient
manuscripts. However vaults C to F are only ever entered by the Mantrikas, the high priests of the Temple ,
and they are bound by a strict code of silence regarding anything within them
that they tend.
The Temple is
run by a trust headed by the Royal family of Trivandrum .
The incumbent King, or Maharaja, of Trivandrum
has stated that the underground section of the Temple
is a holy place, a bit like the Tabernacle in the Bible, see: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/ark-of-covenant.html.
However in January of 2011 he lost a case in the Kerala High Court against a
lawyer and devotee of the Temple ,
TP Sundara Rajan. Rajan has demanded that the vaults all be opened and
inspected in accordance with government regulations. The King went to the
Supreme Court of India to try to overturn the verdict, but he failed and in
July of 2011 the doors to vaults C to F were opened in the presence of a
seventeen member committee made up of government officials and a German travel
journalist, Thomas Ritter. It turned out that the legends were true; the vaults
contain a vast hoard of golden coins, silver jewellery, statues made of gold
and studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. There were countless other
items of phenomenal monetary and historical value. The newest items are French
Napoleonic cash, but there are also Roman and other kinds of coinage dating
back much earlier. A detailed inventory was collated of every object and then
management of the vaults was handed straight back to the priests. But for the
sake of security the Kerala government immediately deployed police commandos to
guard the Temple twenty-four-seven.
A few weeks after that, vault A was opened for the first time in several
centuries, with some trepidation, it too contained priceless antiquities of heritage;
the inventory of this vault is still in progress. However the inspection was
not completed; vault B was not opened. Despite the Supreme Court order enabling
them, Rajan's committee decided to postpone the opening of vault B, or the Mahabharata Konathu Kallara, as it is also
known. This particular vault has never been opened in living memory and there
are no records of it ever having been opened. It is sealed shut with a heavy
solid cast iron door without a latch, so opening it would be extremely
difficult. It would probably require the use of heavy industrial methods, like
explosives or a blowtorch, to force the door, in doing so badly damage it. The Temple
priesthood has advised against this and the court has temporarily withdrawn its
consent. According to Temple lore,
the door was originally shut and locked by the divine power of Lord Vishnu
himself, wielded by the priests of long ago chanting special prayers called Naga Bandham and Naga Passam mantras. The only way to open the door is to chant what
is known as the Garuda mantra. However
there are said to be no priests in India
today who are qualified to chant that prayer and so the door cannot be opened
until there are. There is an emblem carved on the door of a cobra, the symbol
of something sacred and forbidden. The priests' advice to the committee is not just
because the interior of vault B is especially holy, although it undoubtedly is;
it's that forcing their way into the vault could be extremely dangerous.
There are no English language news spots on this
subject that I can find; here's one in the local vernacular of Kerala: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mm7LyzfbIc.
I only learnt about this from an article written by the above mentioned Thomas
Ritter published in Nexus, see: https://www.nexusmagazine.com/products/nexus-magazines/volume-20/nexus-vol-20-no-3-apr-may-2013-detail.
Speculation about what lies within vault B is rife, as are the consequences of
any wrongful breaching of the door. It might contain a vial of toxic chemicals
or deadly bacteria. Another possibility is that it is flooded; the vault is
simply the end of a tunnel that is filled with seawater from the nearby Indian Ocean . If the door were forced, the water would burst forth
and drown whoever did it. The priesthood is adamant that the result would be a
catastrophe wreaked by Lord Vishnu on Kerala , India and even the entire world. Another theory is that the
vault contains an extraterrestrial artefact. It's not unknown for items that fall
down to Earth from space to be venerated by religious institutions. The sacred black
Kaaba Stone in the heart of Mecca , and the focus of the entire faith of Islam, is
probably a meteorite; and Credo Mutwa, the Zulu shaman, showed his necklace to
David Icke and said that it contained "stones from another world",
see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdZHCVvZbTY.
Would artificial objects from out in space raise the same sacred instincts?
Almost certainly. It's possible there might be something even stranger in
there, like a stargate. The last unopened kallara
might also contain a vimana, an
object that the UFO community has heard a lot about in recent years. Vimanas are flying vehicles that are
included in the Rigveda, India 's oldest and most fundamental text and many
subsequent Sanskrit epics. These aircraft are described in great detail, being
piloted by both men and the gods. They are extremely powerful, able to fly
right up into space, and are armed by weapons of terrible destructive potency. There
are even instructions on their design and that the energy that propels them
comes from pure mercury. This could be why a German U-boat was captured off the
coast of Singapore just after the end of World War II carrying a cargo
of mercury. Nobody knows where the submarine had come from or where it was
heading, but the Nazi's were experimenting with esoteric anti-gravity power
generators and levitation devices in the latter stages of the war, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skiOOKmB7GU.
After the war we don't know what happened, but it's conceivable that the
victorious Allies managed to obtain the results of this work via Project
Paperclip and carry it on in secret in their own countries. If the mystifying
and clandestine vault, deep below the great Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in India , contains a vimana,
or anything similar, whether built here on Earth or somewhere else, you can bet
that the security in the compound will intensify considerably, and the opposite
will happen to any news reports. Also visitors in dark suits from the USA or other countries might arrive on the scene. If this
happens then it means that no catastrophe took place. We can at least take
comfort from the fact that the door was opened properly without pissing off
Lord Vishnu.
MR Ben,
ReplyDeleteI am from kerala, india .and well aware of the temple, were we all worship.
Its true that all the belogings of this temple is not known to world . but one thing of sure . No UFO's related. our ancestors belong to the oldest civilisation in the world. and the temple belonged to the indian king who had a huge fortune. old royal family do have treasures not known to outside world.
Dear Mr. Ben,
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I think it would be a very bad idea to open tbe vault. It sounds like a Pandora's Box situation: forbidden entry and beware! Besides, the contents belong to Lord Vishnu. Hare Krishna and hello from England :)
A very informative post on the mysterious Padmanabhaswamy temple . It a famous pilgrimage centre and one the most richest temple. Its important to know the Padmanabhaswamy temple timings as there is a special timing for Nirmalya Darshanam.
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