Vault A: The Untold Story of Padmanabhaswamy Temple's ₹1 Lakh Crore Treasure

In 2011, on the orders of the Supreme Court of India, a small team stood before an iron door inside the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple that had not been formally catalogued in living memory. When it finally opened, what lay behind it stunned the country: chests of gold coins, ropes of diamonds, statues studded with emeralds, and a single gold chain reported to be eighteen feet long. This was Vault A — and its discovery is the reason the neighbouring Vault B has never been opened at all.

If you have read our earlier piece on Vault B and the mystery of the sealed chamber, this is the story that came before it — the vault that was opened, what was found inside, and why its contents changed the conversation around the temple forever.

What Is Vault A?

The underground chambers of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, are traditionally called kallaras. During the Supreme Court-supervised proceedings that began in 2011, these chambers were labelled with letters for identification — Kallara A and Kallara B sit closest to the sanctum, with several other chambers (C through F, and later G and H) located elsewhere in the temple complex. Vault A was among the first to be formally inventoried.

The 2011 Supreme Court-Ordered Inventory

The opening of the vaults followed a long-running legal dispute over who had authority to manage the temple's assets. Acting on a public interest litigation, the Supreme Court ordered an official inventory of the temple's underground chambers, to be carried out by a court-appointed team in the presence of temple and government officials. Vault A was opened as part of this process, and its contents were photographed, weighed, and recorded — a process that itself took months given the sheer volume of material involved.

What Was Found Inside

Reports from the inventory team and subsequent media coverage described an extraordinary range of objects inside Vault A, accumulated over centuries as offerings to Lord Padmanabha:

• Sacks and chests filled with gold coins — some ancient, some from the colonial and princely-state era
• Gold ornaments, necklaces, and ceremonial jewellery, including a gold chain reported to be roughly 18 feet long
• Gold and silver idols, thrones, and ceremonial vessels used in temple rituals
• Precious and semi-precious stones, with some reports referencing diamonds of exceptional size and quality
• Coins and objects that researchers linked to old trade routes, including references to Roman-era coins found in the region and gems associated with the historic Golconda mines

Taken together, the find is widely regarded as one of the largest documented collections of temple treasure ever inventoried in India — the accumulated devotion of the Travancore royal family and countless devotees across generations.

How Much Is It Worth? A Number That Needs Care

Media reports at the time floated valuations as high as ₹1 lakh crore (roughly $22 billion) for the contents of Vault A and the other inventoried chambers combined. This figure travelled around the world and is still the number most associated with the temple today.

It is important to be precise here: this was never an official, audited valuation. Sacred objects, centuries-old antiquities, and ceremonial items carry historical and religious significance that cannot be reduced to a simple market price, and no government or court body has released a final, certified figure. The ₹1 lakh crore number is best understood as a widely reported estimate rather than a settled fact.

The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the Travancore Royal Family

The temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu in his Anantashayanam form — reclining on the eternal serpent Adishesha — and is revered as one of the 108 Divya Desams of the Sri Vaishnava tradition. For centuries, the rulers of the former princely state of Travancore governed as Padmanabha Dasa — servants of Lord Padmanabha — a title still held with reverence by the royal family today.

Maharaja Marthanda Varma, who consolidated the kingdom of Travancore in the 18th century, is remembered for formally dedicating his entire kingdom to Lord Padmanabha in 1750, ruling thereafter as the deity's steward rather than its owner. This is the devotional context in which the temple's treasure accumulated — not as royal wealth set aside for personal use, but as centuries of offerings held in trust for the deity.

Vault A vs. Vault B — What's the Difference?

This is the question every visitor to the temple's story eventually asks. Vault A was opened and inventoried as part of the 2011 court process. Vault B was not. When the inventory team reached Vault B, the Supreme Court paused any further move to open it, citing the sensitivity of the chamber and the need for caution given what had already been found. In 2020, the Supreme Court's final judgment on the matter restored the Travancore royal family's shebait (custodial) rights over the temple and established a formal administrative structure — but the question of whether Vault B should ever be opened was left to the temple's committees rather than settled outright.

Popular retellings often add that the entrance to Vault B is protected by a nagabandham (serpent seal) that can only be lifted through a specific Garuda mantra, and that priests have warned of misfortune for anyone who disturbs it without the proper rites. These are part of the temple's living oral tradition and devotional belief — they are not documented facts, and a responsible account should hold them at that: sincerely held tradition, not proven mechanism.

A Coincidence the Internet Won't Let Go

One detail that resurfaces often in discussions of the temple is the passing of T. P. Sundararajan, the retired IPS officer whose public interest litigation led to the Supreme Court-ordered inventory. He died in November 2011, not long after the vaults were opened. For some devotees, the timing has taken on religious significance — read as a sign tied to the sanctity of what was disturbed. It is presented here as a documented sequence of events, not as a claim of cause and effect; readers are free to draw their own conclusions, as many temple visitors do.

Frequently Asked Questions

Two Vaults, One Enduring Mystery

Vault A gave the world a glimpse of what centuries of devotion, offered without expectation of return, can accumulate in one sacred place. Vault B, sitting only metres away, has chosen to keep its secret. Together they form one of the most remarkable stories in Indian temple history — equal parts history, law, and faith.

Om Namo Narayanaya. Jai Sree Padmanabha.