Treasures of Travancore

-

Digital Art - A Pendant for the Queen of Travancore

While many of the precious treasures of India were taken away by the British during British Rule of India changing the United Kingdom of the time from an impoverished one to one of the richest in the world, some treasures were hidden from British eyes. One of these were the ancient treasures of Travancore because they were hidden securely in temple vaults. The temple and its assets belong to Lord Padmanabhaswamy, and were controlled by a trust run by the former Royal family of Travancore.


Wikipedia has this to say about its ancient treasures: -

In June 2011, the Supreme Court directed the authorities to open the secret chambers of the temple for inspection of the items kept inside. The temple has 6 vaults labeled as A to F for book keeping purpose by the Court. While vaults A and B have been unopened over the past many years, vaults C to F have been opened from time to time. ----The review of the temple's underground vaults was undertaken by a seven-member panel appointed by the Supreme Court of India to generate an inventory, leading to the enumeration of a vast collection of articles that are traditionally kept under lock and key. A detailed inventory of the temple assets, consisting of gold, jewels, and other valuables was made. Several 18th century Napoleonic era coins were found, as well as a three-and-a-half feet tall gold idol of Mahavishnu studded with rubies and emeralds, and ceremonial attire for adorning the deity in the form of 16-part gold anki weighing almost 30 kilograms (66 lb) together with gold coconut shells, one studded with rubies and emeralds. In 2012, an expert committee had been appointed to investigate these objects, which include coins of the Roman Empire. ----- This revelation has solidified the status of the Padmanabhaswamy temple as one of the wealthiest temples in India having some INR320 billion (US$5.3 billion) in gold, coins and other assets. It is estimated that the value of the monumental items is close to INR1.2 trillion (US$20 billion), making it the richest temple in the world. If the antique value is taken into account, these assets could be worth ten times the current market price. One of the oldest existing estimates, which can be considered to be at least as reliable as any other made since the discovery of the hidden treasure (or assets) of the Temple in 2011, was done by the Travancore Royal Family itself in 1931. According to the then drawn-up estimate, the riches contained in Vault B, which is the only vault of the six that is unopened so far, since the discovery of the treasure, were worth INR12,000 crores. Considering the subsequent inflation of the rupee, and the increase in the prices of gold and other precious metals and stones since, the treasure in the unopened vault B alone, would be worth at least rupees 50 trillion (US$1 trillion) in present-day terms, before the cultural value being factored in.

The Temple at Travancore


Temple image modified from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TVM_aps_temple.jpg

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license..
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark Matter

-
Light and Dark - Digital art by Ashok Malhotra Consciousness observing the mind generates love and hatred, joy and sorrow. The human mind plays with opposites of heat and cold, dark and light, lies and truth. The underlying consciousness is a manifestation of what is called dark matter by scientists in living beings, just as gravity is one of its manifestations in inanimate matter. It is the source of feelings and emotions that arise from the consciousness. Fire cannot burn it nor can water make it wet. It is beyond the physical laws because it is a source of them. Focused on an individual life form, it is what sages call a soul. It is but a part of the sea of dark matter that pervades the created universe and is a source of it all. It has been termed as dark matter by scientists but a more correct terminology is eternal matter because it existed before the created universe came into being and will continue to exist even after the created universe dissolves in it fo...
Read more

How is the value of an oil painting determined?

-
An old tree and a younger one, oil on canvas by Ashok M. M any wonder at the huge price of works of arts like some oil paintings on Canvas that are auctioned by leading auction houses from time to time while they find other works of art in a flee market going for a few dollars, some that seem just as nice or nicer. How is the value of a work of art fixed? An answer to this can be found if we go back to the beginnings of human civilization. At first, humans traded goods in kind, for example a sack of grains for an animal skin. In time however humans invented coins and currency that were easier to carry to the market. A sack of gain was considered equivalent to a certain number of coins as was an animal skin. Thus based on the demand and supply of goods, monetary values were determined for all the things humans need. The invention of money also permitted humans to accumulate and store wealth in a compact manner. In time similar values became associated with preciou...
Read more

Two Together – A Sketch

-
Two Together - Color Sketch on paper by Ashok, 1991    If either falls, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him  that is  alone when he falleth; for  he hath  not another to help him up. Eccelestiastes 4:10 Yet one who loves God, walks in the company of angels In 1991 I visited a friend in Egypt. His village in the Beni Suef province is situated on the banks of a branch of the Nile River. On my return with thoughts of the Nile, I made some sketches with colored pens on paper. Most have been lost now but this one remains. On the lower right corner my name Ashok is signed in Arabic of which I have a rudimentary knowledge from my stints in the Middle East. File photo of me and Mehmood Mohmed Mohamed from September 1991 on a visit to his village Manhara in Egypt. Also in photo is his son Hanafi
Read more

Buddha Purnima

-
Buddha by Ashok Today is Buddha Purnima, the annual celebration day of Buddha. he advocated non-violence with love and compassion for all life. This image is a digital art rendering of Buddha based on a photo of a brass statue of Buddha in the author's home. A magical thing happened during the creation, I had signed my name in white but it changed to silver, I believe by the grace of Buddha. Praise the Lord of Love and Compassion - Gautam Buddha. .Please feel free to copy this image and use anywhere you like as long as you give this link, but please do not modify it any way. Love and peace to all visitors to this blog.
Read more

Renaming old works of Art – Dark Clouds of Armageddon

-
Dark Clouds of Armageddon, Oil on Canvas by Ashok M. W hen a work of art remains in a single hand, that of the artist and creator, he may leave it unnamed, name it and change the name if he so desires. Once it is sold, he no longer has a right on it and it is not appropriate to do so. Personally, I have been a scientist and academic and painted of and on over the last several years when time and inclination permitted. Many of the works were destroyed later in the belief that an oil and canvas has a very long life and I would not like to leave for the world something that is not the best. Not having to depend on art for a living, I have also not sold my paintings. Some have been gifted and others (about half a dozen) remain in my possession and adorn the walls of my home. At times I use a picture as illustration for a note or an article. Today morning, I added one to an article ( here ) about a possible apocalypse the world might be headed for. It was earlier been named ...
Read more

Spiritual Words

-
Today I took a portion of an image from an older oil painting illustrated in this blog and with some digital alterations and text ( Words of Buddha that I found on Facebook) produced this poster that I shared on twitter
Read more

An image from Syria

-
Dark Clouds over Syria , Oil on Canvas (2012) by Ashok Malhotra Usually my mind is focused on happy thoughts when I play with forms and colors on a canvas. However, this one is an exception. It was created when thoughts were focused on the tragedy that is unfolding in Syria - violence and destruction. Can the crisis in Syria be solved? For sure it can. An easy solution is here: http://ashokmalhotra.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/need-for-a-new-international-law-to-save-humans-syria/ Why is the solution not being implemented? Perhaps the world wants to sell more guns for profit How many more guns must be sold, how much more blood must flow before peace comes to the people of Syria and refugees including sweet children, just as sweet as yours or mine can return home? Update 2016: The war in Syria has gone on even more than four years after this note. This painting still remains in my possession and now I prefer to call it Dark Clouds of Armageddon. The red color ...
Read more

Difficulties In Photographing Paintings

-
The oil paintings shown in this blog are still in my possession. I photographed them at home with a digital camera that I purchased from a shop called Dayal Radio in Nainital a few years ago. It is a really old shop from which my dad had purchased a radio decades ago. Now it sells other goods such as cameras. I am not much of a photographer but the Himalayan scenery in and around Nainital is so beautiful that I just had to capture some. The camera has been great for photographing scenery and people. Some of the photographs are in my other blogs. However the problem with trying to photograph an oil painting is that the colors and picture does not come out exactly like the original. It is influenced by lighting, angle etc. and it does not help if one is an amateur photographer like me.After one has snapped the photo with some of the wall too one can crop it with digital programs to remove as much of the wall and/or frame that one wishes to. The problem did not end here because the...
Read more

Developing an Image for a Note about God

-
   EYE OF THE UNIVERSE Right now I am preparing a note about God for my new blog devoted exclusively to spirituality and considered adding an image at https://ashokbabaji.blogspot.in/ For that I took a NASA image in the public domain and made digital alterations to it to make it more suitable for the article. The result was quite nice and perhaps good enough to share in this blog on art as an example of digital art. While preparing a physical work of art such as an oil on canvas   takes a lot of time, digital art can be produced rather quickly with modern tools and software. The image can be used as an aid in meditation on God as our Universal Father and Mother, not as that belonging to any one religion.
Read more