Gold Stories

 

When you think of stories that relate to Gold, the first that would come to our mind is either that of 'Midas touch' of the 'Goose that laid the golden egg'; both with the same moral. Greed is not good. Those who have plenty want more, so they loose all that they have. 

Midas asked for a boon. All that he would touch should turn into gold. He was unable to eat, because the food turned to gold. Once day, he touched his daughter, she turned into gold. This made him sad, and he prayed that his wish be taken back.

There was a wonderful goose that laid, beautiful glittering golden eggs, one a day. The countryman, who possessed her, sold it and soon became very rich. One day, he thought it I cut open the goose I can get all the golden eggs at once. When the deed was done, he got not even a single egg and the Goose was done.

On 30.06.2011 at Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple in Tiruvananthapur,  Kerala six underground vaults attracted media attention all over the world. Named A to F, Vaults C to F where in the custody of the temple priests, opened at least eight times in year, for temple festivals and restored after use. What’s in Vault B, remains a mystery; they opened Vault A, 20 feet underground, it took days to measure what was in there. The revelation dwarfed the known assets of every other Indian temple.  The total worth of it, is speculated to be around $22 billion, 1 trillion or 1,00,000 crore ; in the form of  golden utensils, weapons, golden idols, golden elephants idols, diamond necklaces and bags full of golden coins of different nations, including Napoleon and Italian coins.  

As the writer Gurcharan Das has chronicled, Indian kings and merchants had been accumulating profits from the spice trade for nearly two thousand years. In ancient Rome, senators lamented that local women used too many Indian luxuries, and, in 77 A.D., Pliny the Elder proclaimed that India had become “the sink of the world’s gold.” In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese echoed this sentiment, complaining that too much of their silver from the New World was going to India; after the British arrived on the subcontinent, they made similar protests.

The temple amassed much of its riches in the early eighteenth century. At the time, the Maharaja of Travancore was battling local chieftains. His main rivals were known, collectively, as the Lords of the Eight Houses. One day, these men gathered at an inn, south of Trivandrum, and plotted to assassinate him, during a festival at the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple. The plan might have succeeded had it not been for an old man—the keeper of the well attached to the inn—who overheard the conspirators and sent word to the Maharaja. On the day of the festival, the Maharaja showed up at the temple armed, with a contingent of soldiers; he eventually ordered a number of rebels to be executed, seized their wealth, levelled their homes, and sold their wives and children into slavery. The Maharaja “was a very cruel man” who, after murdering so many, yearned for absolution. “As repentance, he dedicated his entire kingdom to God, in 1750,” Nair explained. “Whatever things he had collected by defeating all those kings—all the valuables, gold, silver, ornaments, and coins—he gave to the Lord.” “This wealth, was locked up beneath the temple.”  Said historian T. P. Sankrankutty Nair

Confirmed treasures obtained from the temple :

1. A 3.5-foot (1.1 m) tall golden Vishnu idol, studded with precious stones.
2. A pure golden throne, studded with hundreds of diamonds and precious stones, meant for the 18-foot (5.5 m) idol of deity
3. An 18-foot (5.5 m) long gold chain
4. A gold sheaf weighing 500 kilograms (1,100 lb)
5. A 36-kilogram (79 lb) golden veil
6. 1,200 'Sarappalli' gold coin-chains encrusted with precious stones
7. Several sacks filled with golden artifacts, necklaces, diadems, diamonds, rubies, sapphires,             emeralds, gemstones, and objects made of other precious metals
8. Ceremonial attire for adorning the deity in the form of 16-part gold anki weighing almost 30         kilograms (66 lb)
9. Gold coconut shells studded with rubies and emeralds
10. Several 18th century Napoleonic era coins
11. Hundreds of thousands of gold coins of the Roman Empire
12. An 800-kilogram (1,800 lb) hoard of gold coins dating to around 200 BC
13. According to varying reports, at least three, if not many more, solid gold crowns all studded         with diamonds and other precious stones.
14. Hundreds of pure gold chains
15. Thousands of gold pots and jars

What happened to “G,H” ?  Been closed for centuries?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/30/the-secret-of-the-temple

 Re-read these - 73 of 2021

Deeno Daan - Rabindranath Tagore

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“There is no god in that temple”, said the Saint.

The King was enraged;

“No God? Oh Saint, aren’t you speaking like an atheist?

On the throne studded with priceless gems, beams the golden idol,

And yet, you proclaim that’s empty?”

“It’s not empty; It’s rather full of the Royal pride.

You have bestowed yourself, oh King, not the God of this world”,

Remarked the saint. 

The King frowned, “2 million golden coins

Were showered on that grand structure that kisses the sky,

I offered it to the Gods after performing all the necessary rituals,

And you dare claim that in such a grand temple,

There is no presence of God”?

The Saint calmly replied, “in the very year in which, twenty million of your subjects were struck by a terrible drought;

The pauperized masses without any food or shelter,

came begging at your door crying for help, only to be turned away,

they were forced to take refuge in forests, caves, camping under roadside foliages, derelict old temples; 

and in that very year

when you spent 2 million gold to build that grand temple of your's,

that was the day when God pronounced:

“My eternal home is lit by everlasting lamps,

In the midst of an azure sky,

In my home the foundations are built with the values:

Of Truth, Peace, Compassion and Love.

The poverty stricken puny miser,

Who could not provide shelter to his own homeless subjects,

Does he really fancy of giving me a home?”

That is the day God left that Temple of yours.

And joined the poor beside the roads, under the trees. 

Like emptiness of the froth in the vast seas,

Your mundane temple is as hollow.

It’s just a bubble of wealth and pride.’

The enraged King howled,

“oh you sham cretin of a person,

Leave my kingdom this instant’.

The Saint replied calmly, 

“The very place where you have exiled the Divine,

Kindly banish the devout too".