Panel set up to evaluate temple treasures to meet Monday

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The expert committee set up by the Supreme Court to evaluate the treasures hid in the vaults of the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple here will have its first meeting on Monday to evolve an action plan on how to go about the sensitive task.

The committee, headed by senior bureaucrat and Director General of National Museum C V Ananda Bose, has as its members one representative each from RBI, Archaeological Survey of India, state government and the temple executive officer and a nominee of the Travancore royal family.

Monday's meet would primarily chalk out the strategy to go about the task and evolve a work plan to proceed with the delicate job, official sources told PTI.

The meeting would also review work already been done by the earlier seven-member committee which had opened four of the six inner chambers and inventoried the precious articles of great intrinsic and heritage value locked up in the inner chambers of the ancient shrine, sources said.

The first meeting would be more of a fact-finding one and would review what had already been done so that duplication could be avoided, sources said.

Earlier, the seven-member committee, which included two former judges of the Kerala High Court, had opened four of the six vaults, which were found to contain a glittering pile of priceless treasures like gold jewels, stone-studded crowns, rare idols, rubies, diamonds, piles of gold coins and stacks of gold and silver ware.

A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik had on July 21 ordered the formation of the panel while considering the temple case.

The committee has been asked to evaluate the articles found in the vaults already opened, organise an inventory and videograph all the precious articles.

The sprawling temple known for its architectural elegance is managed by a trust under the Travancore royal family, which ruled South Kerala until the princely state was integrated with the Indian Union after Independence in 1947.

The issue of the long-shut treasures was taken to court by one T P Sundarajan, who died earlier this month, seeking transparency and accountability in the management of the shrine.

The Kerala High Court in May ordered the state take-over the shrine. But this order was stayed later by the Supreme Court but directed the inventory of the temple treasures.

While all other major temples of Kerala were handed over to the state-run Travancore Devaswom Board, the management of the Padmanabhaswamy temple was allowed to be retained by the royal house through a special convenant in 1948

The members of the royal house consider themselves to Padmanabhadasas (servants of Lord Padamnabha) after that pledge was taken in 18th century by Anizham Tirunal Marthanda Varma, the most illustrious king of Travancore.