There are quite a few ancient temples of India which are in good shape.
Some of them have been assigned dates before Christ,BC,though reluctantly despite strong evidence that they belong to much earlier times.
Please check my articles on 5000 years old temples of India.
The Thiruvannamalai temple,Tamil Nadu is dated 3.94 Billion years,Tirupati 2100 million years and Jwalapuram, Cuddapah,Telengana, India is 74,000 years old……….
There are some more ancient temples like the Pundarikaksha Temple,Thiruvellarai, near Sriranagam and Srirangamtemple Tamil Nadu.
There are many more and I shall be writing about them.
The Ananta Padmanabhaswamy temple at Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala is one such ancient temple where the presiding deity is Lord Vishnu in his form as the Infinite one in yoga Nidra.
The temple has also been one of the richest temple in India, where billions worth of gold and ornaments have been found sealed in an underground vault and the court had appointed a committee to evaluate the riches.
This temple is referred to in the Puranas and Tamil Classics of the Sangam era.
What is now Kerala was a part of Tamil Chera Kingdom.
Chera kings also enriches the temple and this dynasty goes back to thousands of years.
However the temple and the city has been dated to around late first century BC.
This is way off the mark.
The Tamil epic Silappadikarama, written by Ilangao Adigal, brother of the Chera king mentions this temple and also details the Thiruvananthapuram temple .
Silappadikaram describes the city as golden city and the temple as one which was made of gold.
Same description is found in the Puranas.
Poompuhar,Tamil Nadu where most of the action of Silappadikaram takes place has been found off the sea and it has been proved that the people of Poompuhar had extensive trade with the Greeks, among others.
And now Poompuhar has been dated some 20,000 years back!
As Silappadikaram speaks of Thiruvananthapuram and Anantha Padmanabhaswamy temple, these two should have existed before the events narrated in Silapadikaram.
As Poompuhar is dated 20,000 years ago, it is reasonable to state that Thiruvananthapuram and Padmanabhaswamy temple date back to 20,000 years.
‘
Silappadikaram has been dated to likely belong to the beginning of Common era.
The incidence of Kovalan Madhavi and Kannagi took place in the same period as the poet who wrote the Tamil Epic was the brother of the Chera King Cheran Senguttuvan.
However the recent finding placed these dates to 11000 years back!
So it is logical to arrive at the conclusion that the Silappadikaram Town was in existence around 11000 CE and for a rich language as Tamil to develop, from a dialect, colloquial form and then to literary ,it requires minimum 5000 Years.
And Tamil quotes Ithihasas ,Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Vedas.
That should place these Ithihasas earlier .
Hence based on this evidence available now, Tamil should be at least 16000 years old and the Sanskrit Puranas earlier.
Please read my Post Million Year Old Tamil quotes Vedas and they quote Tamil.
But we are assigning Tamil Sangam at 5 BC and Rig veda at 5000 BC!…
..
The date of Poompuhar artifact was arrived at and verified by Glenn Milne Sea Level changes.
The place is called Poompuhar. It lies on southeast India’s Coromandel coast facing the Bay of Bengal between modern Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Its immediate offshore area has been the subject of marine archaeological investigations by India’s National Institute of Oceanography since the 1980’s — and numerous non-controversial finds of man-made structures dated between the third century AD and the third century BC have been made in the “inter-tidal zone” close to shore at depths down to 6 feet (approximately 2 metres).
These finds of structures in shallow water (some so shallow that they are exposed at low tide) have been quite widely written-up in the archaeological literature. But for some reason other discoveries that the NIO has made in deeper water off Poompuhar have attracted no attention at all. Most notably these other discoveries include a second completely separate group of structures fully three miles from the Poompuhar shore in water that is more than 70 feet (23 metres) deep. The lack of interest is surprising because to anyone with even minimal knowledge of post-glacial sea-level rise their depth of submergence is – or should be – highly anomalous. Indeed according to Glenn Milne’s sea-level data the land on which these structures were built last stood above water at the end of the Ice Age more than 11,000 years ago.
Is it a coincidence that there are ancient Tamil flood myths that speak of a great kingdom that once existed in this area called Kumari Kandam that was swallowed up by the sea? Amazingly the myths put a date of 11,600 years ago on these events — the same timeframe given by Plato for the end of Atlantis in another ocean.
Like the cities in the Gulf of Cambay the underwater structures three miles offshore of Poompuhar were first identified by an instrument called sidescan sonar that profiles the seabed. One structure in particular was singled out for investigation and was explored by divers from India’s National Institute of Oceanography in 1991 and 1993. Although they were not at that time aware of the implications of its depth of submergence — i.e. that it is at least 11,500 years old — the 1991 study confirms that it is man-made and describes it as:
a horse-shoe-shaped object, its height being one to two metres. A few stone blocks were found in the one-metre wide arm. The distance between the two arms in 20 metres. Whether the object is a shrine or some other man-made structure now at 23 metres [70 feet] depth remains to be examined in the next field season.
The 1993 study refines the measurements:
The structure of U-shape was located at a water depth of 23 metres which is about 5 kilometres off shore. The total peripheral length of the object is 85 metres while the distance between the two arms is 13 metres and the maximum height is 2 metres Divers observed growth of thick marine organism on the structure, but in some sections a few courses of masonry were noted.
Graham Hancock is an advocate of this theory and I subscribe to this as this has more science to back it up.
‘
Padmanabhaswamy temple is located in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. The temple is built in an intricate fusion of the indigenous Kerala style and the Dravidian style (kovil) of architecture associated with the temples located in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, featuring high walls, and a 16th-century Gopuram. While the Moolasthanam of the temple is the Ananthapuram Temple in Kasargod, architecturally to some extent, the temple is a replica of the Adikesava Perumal temple located in Kanyakumari District. It is the richest Hindu temple in the world.In terms of gold assets and precious stones, it is by far the wealthiest institution and place of worship of any kind in the recorded history of the world, with an estimated $22 billion worth of gold and jewels stored in underground vaults (not accounting for historical value). At the time of writing, only 5 of the 8 underground vaults had been opened and explored.
The principal deity Vishnu is enshrined in the “Anantha Shayanam” posture, the eternal yogic sleep on the serpent Adisheshan……
Several extant Hindu Texts like the Brahma Purana, Matsya Purana, Varaha Purana, Skanda Purana, Padma Purana, Vayu Purana, Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata mention this shrine. The Temple has been referred to in the (only recorded) Sangam Period of literature between 500 B.C and 300 A.D several times. Many conventional historians and scholars are of the opinion that one of the names that the Temple had – “The Golden Temple” – literally was in cognizance of the fact that the Temple was already unimaginably wealthy by that point. Many extant pieces of Sangam Tamil literature and poetry, and even the later works of Ninth Century poet-saints like Nammalwar, refer to the Temple and even the city as having walls of pure gold. At some places, both the Temple and the entire city are often eulogized even as being made of gold, and the Temple as Heaven.
The temple is one of the 108 principal Divya Desams (“Holy Abodes”) in Vaishnavism, and is glorified in the Divya Prabandha,. The Divya Prabandha glorifies this shrine as being among the 13 Divya Desam in Malai Nadu (corresponding to present-day Kerala and some adjoining areas). The 8th century Alvar Nammalvar sang the glories of Padmanabha. The Ananthapuram Temple in Kasargod is believed to be the ‘Moolasthanam’ of the Temple.
The sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar, who resided near Ananthapuram Temple in Kasargod District, prayed to Lord Vishnu for his darshan or “auspicious sight”. The Lord is believed to have come in the guise of a little boy who was mischievous. The boy defiled the Idol which was kept for Puja. The sage became enraged at this and chased away the boy, who disappeared. After a long search, when he was walking on the banks of Arabian Sea, he heard a pulaya lady threatening her child that she would throw him in Ananthankadu. The moment the Swami heard the word Ananthankadu he was delighted. He proceeded to Ananthankadu based on the directions of the lady of whom he enquired. The Sage reached Ananthankadu searching for the boy. There he saw the boy merging into an Iluppa tree (Indian Butter Tree). The tree fell down and became Anantha Sayana Moorti (Vishnu reclining on the celestial snake Anantha). But the edifice that the Lord assumed was of an extraordinarily large size, with His head at Thiruvallom, navel at Thiruvananthapuram, and lotus-feet at Thrippadapuram (Thrippappur), making him some eight miles in length. The Sage requested the Lord to shrink to a smaller proportion that would be thrice the length of his staff. Immediately the Lord shrank to the form of the Idol that is seen at present in the Temple. But even then many Iluppa trees obstructed a complete vision of the Lord. The Sage saw the Lord in three parts – thirumukham, thiruvudal and thrippadam. Swami prayed to Padmanabha to be forgiven. The Swami offered Rice Kanji and Uppumanga (salted mango pieces) in a coconut shell to the Perumal which he obtained from the pulaya woman. The spot where the Sage had darsan of the Lord belonged to Koopakkara Potti and Karuva Potti. With the assistance of the reigning King and some Brahmin households a Temple was constructed. Koopakkara Potti was made the Tantri of the Temple. The Ananthankadu Nagaraja Temple still exists to the north west of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The Samadhi (final resting place) of the Swamiyar exists to the west of the Padmanabha Temple. A Krishna Temple was built over the Samadhi. This Temple, known as Vilvamangalam Sri Krishna Swami Temple, belongs to Thrissur Naduvil Madhom’..
‘A treasure trove of gold and silver jewelry, coins and precious stones said to be worth billions of dollars has been found in a Hindu temple in southern India, officials said.
The valuables have an estimated preliminary worth of over 500 billion rupees ($11.2 billion), said Kerala Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar, catapulting the temple into the league of India’s richest temples.
The thousands of necklaces, coins and precious stones have been kept in at least five underground vaults at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple which is renowned for its intricate sculptures.
“We are yet to open one more secret chamber which has not been opened for nearly 140 years,” Jayakumar told AFP.
The actual value of the treasure haul can be ascertained only after it is examined by the archaeological department, said Jayakumar.
The temple, dedicated to Hindu lord Vishnu, was built hundreds of years ago by the king of Travancore and donations by devotees have been kept in the temple’s vaults since.
A necklace found on Thursday was 18 feet (six metres) long. Thousands of gold coins have also been found.
Since India achieved independence from Britain in 1947, a trust managed by descendants of the Travancore royal family has controlled the temple.
But India’s Supreme Court recently ordered that the temple be managed by the state to ensure the security of valuables at the shrine.
Until now, the Thirupathy temple in southern Andhra Pradesh state was believed to be India’s richest temple with offerings from devotees worth 320 billion rupees.
The revelation about the huge riches in the Padmanabhaswamy temple has forced police to sharply step install security cameras and alarms.
References and Citations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple#cite_note-11
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=STbMzFKaxcQC&pg=PA155&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://asi.nic.in/nmma_reviews/indian%20archaeology%201969-70%20a%20review.pdf
You must be logged in to post a comment.