The door that is forbidden to open: what secret the cobras guard on the door of the Vishnu temple

The Indian temple of Padmanabhaswami became widely known outside the country, after in 2011, grandiose treasures worth a total of 22 billion US dollars were discovered here. But the main secret of this temple is still hidden behind a door that no one dares to open.

Padmanabhaswami Temple is located in the city of Trivandrum in southwestern India (Kerala). This is one of the many Hindu temples dedicated to the god Vishnu. In its modern form, the building has existed here since 1731, since the reign of Marthand Varma. But divades, as the holy monasteries of Vishnu are commonly called in India, have been located on this site since at least the 4th century BC, and over the past two thousand years it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.

This temple is known as one of the richest religious buildings in the world. Its outer walls are covered with gold, and the interior of the temple consists of numerous golden statues and sculptures. But the main treasures, as it turned out not so long ago, were hidden for centuries from prying eyes.

In the Padmanabhaswami temple, as in many Hindu temples, there are vaults containing offerings left by visitors to the sacred place. And over the millennia that have passed since the foundation of the temple, a great many of these gifts have accumulated here. Wealthy families, wealthy merchants and merchants, whose path ran through this area, and simple parishioners - all of them carried gold jewelry, ingots, coins, precious stones and other valuables to the temple as an offering. The temple also kept the wealth of the Maharaja family, the supreme ruler of the city. The priests of the temple put these riches in special vaults, hidden from prying eyes. And who knows how many more these treasures would lie, if not for one person named Sundara Rajan.

Sundara Rajan's lawyer appealed to the country's Supreme Court with a request to open the vaults, conduct a careful account of the values located there and organize the protection of these riches in order to protect them from plunder. Despite public discontent, his lawsuit was upheld. Six of the seven vaults of the Padmanabhaswami Temple were opened. Countless treasures that have been accumulating for thousands of years were presented to the world in 2011 in the presence of the heir to Maharaja, one of the descendants of those who built this magnificent temple.

In addition to numerous coins, ingots and jewelry, the statue of the god Vishnu, the throne, a huge chain and a canvas weighing more than 30 kilograms were extracted from the vaults. Needless to say, all this was made of gold and adorned with numerous precious stones.

The treasures found in the temple represent not only material, but also cultural and historical value. Despite the fact that a complete census of the items found was never made, today the Padmanabhaswami Temple is guarded by an impressive number of law enforcement officers, and the building itself is equipped with video surveillance cameras.

But the main secret of the richest Indian temple is still hidden from the people. The fact is that the last, seventh vault of the temple was never opened due to the fact that the clergy of the temple categorically refused to participate in it, citing the fact that such an act would lead to terrible consequences. According to legend, an inviolable stock of the god Vishnu is stored behind this door. The doors of this cache are guarded by two cobras: stone images of these deadly snakes adorn the entrance to the vault. But these doors do not have handles, locks or any latches and seem to want to show with all their appearance that they should not be opened under any circumstances.

Therefore, while the seventh treasury of the Padmanabhaswami Temple remains sealed, and ominous stone cobras guard its peace.