The arguments by Sankaracharya and M.G.S. Narayanan, the former Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research that the treasure found in Padmanabhaswami temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala is an exclusive property of the royal family or the treasure belong to the temple are not only unacceptable but also elusive and misleading. [ http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2162479.ece, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2162463.ece ].
It’s a common practice of the Indian kings to hoard gold and silver which were created from the surplus. Despite India had a lot of gold and silver why the price of commodities were so cheap in India? Answer : Gold and Silver were hoarded.
Excerpt from ‘The capital Vol 1’ - http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch03.htm#S3a
“In the early stages of the circulation of commodities, it is the surplus use-values alone that are converted into money. Gold and silver thus become of themselves social expressions for superfluity or wealth. This naive form of hoarding becomes perpetuated in those communities in which the traditional mode of production is carried on for the supply of a fixed and limited circle of home wants. It is thus with the people of Asia, and particularly of the East Indies. Vanderlint, who fancies that the prices of commodities in a country are determined by the quantity of gold and silver to be found in it, asks himself why Indian commodities are so cheap. Answer: Because the Hindus bury their money. From 1602 to 1734, he remarks, they buried 150 millions of pounds sterling of silver, which originally came from America to Europe. In the 10 years from 1856 to 1866, England exported to India and China £120,000,000 in silver, which had been received in exchange for Australian gold. Most of the silver exported to China makes its way to India”.
I don’t know how to convert £120 million in mid 1800 into current value. Please help. From the above passage it’s clear it’s exchanged for the Australian gold so Indian Kings and the ruling class imported gold from Australia. Proper investigation may reveal the period of the treasure found in Padmanabhaswami temple. If the treasure is 150 years old we can come to the conclusion that it may have a link with 1856-66 import. Indian kings and royal families converted the labor of the people into Gold and Silver and hoarded them in the temples. The time has revealed this treasure fortunately and the same has to be spent for the people welfare.
It would be great that the political parties will take up issue seriously otherwise stalwarts from the ‘civil society’ may hijack this real issue of the people.
To quote again from the above link,
“By the side of the gross form of a hoard, we find also its aesthetic form in the possession of gold and silver articles. This grows with the wealth of civil society. “Soyons riches ou paraissons riches” (Diderot)”
