On the day the first vault was opened, the court team also tried to open a second, known as Kallara B. Today, the question of whether to open Kallara B to examine its contents is at the center of a bitter and protracted Supreme Court battle, as is the bigger question of exactly who should control the temple, and its priceless treasure. The Varmas, the former royal family of Travancore, now part of the modern state of Kerala, have staunchly opposed opening the vault, citing fears it will disturb the temple’s spiritual energy, anger the Deity and bring them ill fortune. “They believe death will visit them if Kallara B would be opened,” KK Venugopal, a family lawyer, told the judges during a Supreme Court hearing in August.
Yet the Travancore royals are on the defensive when it comes to the temple and its affairs. In April, Gopal Subramanium, a top lawyer appointed as amicus curiae, an independent adviser to the court accused the erstwhile royals of a “large-scale breach of moral and fiduciary duties” to Lord Padmanabha. In his exhaustive 575-page report, he argued there was no proper accounting of public donations received or monies spent at the temple, nor proper records of temple assets. Following this sharp criticism, the Supreme Court ordered the former royal family to hand over their keys to the temple and its vaults, severing their centuries-old role as the shrine’s main custodians.
The court-ordered opening and inventorying of Kallara B seems inevitable — and there is fierce speculation over what it will reveal. Meanwhile, Princess Gowri Parvathi who is the niece of the last Travancore Maharaja insists her family, now led by her older brother, will keep fighting for the restoration of its custodianship of the shrine it insists it had served faithfully for centuries. “We have no claim even to one little coin within the temple,” she says. “We are saying it all belongs to the Deity and to Him only. We are not fighting to gain control of the riches – not at all. We want our good name vindicated. This is our life. It’s not about possessions. We are fighting for our life.”