A Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu in his reclining form as Padmanabha, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, historically administered by the royal family of Travancore under a covenant with the Government of India. The temple holds a set of underground vaults whose contents, opened and inventoried under Supreme Court of India supervision beginning in 2011, drew international attention; one vault, known as Vault B, remains sealed by court order. In 2020 the Supreme Court upheld the Travancore royal family's continuing role in the temple's administration.
Facts
Finances
Basis of the Wealth FigureJournalistic or Scholarly Estimate 3 Financial Disclosure RegimeThe Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple publishes no total valuation or consolidated financial statement of its own. The Supreme Court of India's 2020 judgment settled that the temple's management and the custody of its vaults rest with a court constituted committee working alongside the former royal family of Travancore, under the court's continuing supervision, rather than with any public reporting body of the temple's own. No official total valuation of the temple's holdings has ever been released, and the widely repeated one trillion rupee figure originates in outside press estimates of the opened vaults rather than an official disclosure. 1 Wealth Figure As Of Year Geography
Latitude8.5 degrees north 2Tradition: Encyclopaedia Britannica Longitude76.9 degrees east 2Tradition: Encyclopaedia Britannica Disputed
Institutional Wealth or FinancesA Supreme Court of India appointed panel opened and inventoried five of the temple's six underground vaults beginning in 2011, cataloguing gold idols, a diamond studded throne, thousands of gold coins and sacks of gemstones accumulated over centuries by the Travancore royal family; the sixth, Vault B, remains sealed by court order and has never been opened or inventoried. The widely repeated valuation of roughly 1 trillion Indian rupees, about 22 billion US dollars, for the opened vaults' contents is a media estimate rather than an audited or court certified figure; no comparable estimate exists for Vault B, which is unopened. 3 Site
Type of SiteTemple or temple complex 1 Type of Site DetailThe principal image depicts Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta in a posture so large, some eighteen feet in length, that it cannot be taken in from a single vantage; worshippers instead view the deity through three separate doors positioned respectively at the head, the navel and the feet, each opening onto a different aspect of the same reclining figure. 2 Attributions
TraditionHindu 2Tradition: Encyclopaedia Britannica Location
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple directly: "one trillion rupee valuation for the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple vaults opened in 2011."
This source names Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple directly: "of India's own 2020 judgment on the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple case, settling the temple's administration."
Belongs to Tradition
A Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu in his reclining form as Padmanabha, per the temple's own description.
Contained In
Sources
1. Civil Appeal No. 2732 of 2020, Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple Case, Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India, Supreme Court of India, 2020Civil Appeal No. 2732 of 2020View the Source 1. Civil Appeal No. 2732 of 2020, Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple Case, Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India, Supreme Court of India, 2020Case caption and factsView the Source 2. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024Gazetteer coordinates for the temple, Thiruvananthapuram, KeralaView the Source 2. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024On the temple as a major Hindu Vaishnava shrineView the Source 3. A One Trillion Rupee Hidden Treasure Chamber Is Discovered at India's Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Padmanabhaswamy Temple (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, 2026Lead sectionQuote, Lead section
The Padmanabhaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu in Thiruvananthapuram, Keralam, India.
Travancore Royal Family (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, 2026Lead sectionQuote, Lead section
The current head of the family, Sree Padmanabhadasa Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, fulfills his duty towards the temple as the Titular Maharajah of Travancore and as the Trustee of Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple, Trivandrum, even though he has no part in the administration of the temple.
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