After treasures, tales tumble out of Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple

After treasures, tales tumble out of Sree Padmanabha Swamy templeTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hooded King Cobras with forked tongues, recoiled and ready to strike at lightning speed, inestimable wealth buried in the pond adjoining the temple, underground tunnels that criss-cross Thiruvananthapuram city and connect the temple and the city to the sea, and vaults that spell generations of disaster for anyone who dares open them.

After a week of making an inventory of the immense wealth of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple here, what is now tumbling out are tales of yore, some improbable, others seemingly within the realms of the possible, and yet others a compliment to the stretch of human imagination.

A temple priest has triggered a fresh bout of excitement with a statement that much more treasure may be lying in the pond in front of the temple, a newspaper has re-published reports about the temple's vault being opened in 1931, and some warn that opening the last remaining vault, marked 'B', could invite either a rush of sea water into the city through underground passages that link the temple and the city to the sea, or bring divine wrath for breaking long-standing tradition.

Speculation about the vaults and their surroundings being infested with deadly cobras have the backing of newspaper reportage, with a news item in the 1930s quoting writer Emily Gilchrist Hatch as stating that a group of people who tried to open the vaults in 1908 "fled for their lives" when they found the place infested with cobras.

Whether the King Cobra ( Ophiophagus Hannah )) can survive in such vaults is another matter altogether. "Cobras can never be present in those vaults. There is neither enough oxygen to survive there, nor is there any food for them because even rats and other rodents will not be able to stay alive in such conditions", says B Suresh, celebrated snake-catcher of Thiruvananthapuram who goes by the name 'Vava' Suresh.

Suresh, a Guinness Book-aspirant after claiming to have caught more than 26,000 snakes over more than 25 years and works for the cause of snakes, told ET that cobras guarding temple treasure was more a matter of faith than anything else. "Perhaps the only snake that could hang around such an ambience is the wool snake that goes by the name 'Churutti' in local parlance", says he.

Speculation that the temple pond would have a cache of ornaments and precious metal is supported by the theory that the Travancore kings may have wanted to keep the temple's wealth safe from Tippu, and later from the British.

A decision on opening the last of the six secret vaults at the temple is pending. The tough array of ancient doors has posed a major challenge for the committee appointed by the Supreme Court, to gain entry into it. The vault has apparently been untouched for well over a century, and may just hold a twist in the tale of the temple that has already revealed a trillion rupees worth of treasures in its cellars.