80. Our Temples Treasure and its Looters………!!!!!!

With the findings of the treasure in the chambers of Sri Padmanabhaswami Temple at Thiruvanathapuram, a lot of debate is going on the treasures been hid in Indian Temples. We are aware of the treasure loot happening in India over the centuries. The treasures of Indian temples have attracted invaders from all over the world to lay their greedy hands on it. From the time of Mahmud Ghazni to The East India Company these invaders came in wave after wave and carried away the precious articles housed in temples and palaces. Our country was the richest in the world till the invasion of the Mughals. The Indian temples were not used as the Swiss Bank by the Kings of ancient India but were used to protect the treasure from the hands of the looters who invaded India. Mahmud Ghazni not only looted the fabulous SomnathTemple but made successive devastations to plunder the legendary wealth to the Brajeshwari Devi Temple of Kangra in the year 1009. He carried away gold, silver and jewels from this temple. Nadir Shah another ruler from Persia took away the Peacock Throne (Takht-e-Taoos) which is still to be seen in Teheran. Mallik Kafur destroyed the richness of the Hoysala Kingdom in the south. Now all the beautiful sculptures of Hoysala architecture are in the museum of Copenhagen, Denmark. And lastly came the British through The East India Company and made a systematic and sustained endeavor to pillage and transport not only precious metals, gems and jewels but carpets, paintings, armour et al. The last to succumb to them was Maharaja Ranjit Singh whose kingdom extended from the Punjab to Central Asia and to Tibet. They took away, among all the other valuable pieces, his golden throne, a rare precious item depicting the grandeur of the great sovereign. Before Independence East India Company and British looted the Treasures of India and handed over the country with empty coffers to the Erstwhile Princes of India. After Independence our so called politicians and their sycophants have taken over the mantle of plundered India leaving behind invader like Mohd.Gazni, Mohd. Gori, Nadar Shah, Mallik Kafur and have surpassed even the East India Company and Britishers and have made this venture of slashing the left over wealth of India in Swiss Bank and other Banks overseas. We innocent people of India are left to just get the access of how much worth we are and are given an opportunity to struggle for our livelihood. We are the poor people of a rich country which was looted in every century. It is not only the monetary treasure that has been lost we have lost more of our cultural treasure and architectural treasure. It is beyond our imagination to build temples of that grandeur and hopelessly we are unable to protect those temple art and architecture. Many countries showcase the temples built by our kings and are making use of it to develop their revenue through tourism. We are not concern of our heritage and legacy, we are not bothered to tell our children about our ancient rulers and there past, history has become a taboo for us. With all these loots, the treasures of our great country never seem like diminishing. We are rich and richer day by day, but it our wisdom to safe guard what our country has to offer us. We are culturally, intellectually and traditionally rich even today when compared to many other countries. It is our responsibility to hand over what we have today to the generation next. In this regard what has to be done with the treasures found in temples is the BIG question???????