Expert panel to trace history of temple treasure


THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The five-member expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court, chaired by CV Anandabose, Vice-Chancellor, National Museum Institute, to asses the value of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple treasure on Friday carried out a parallel fact-finding of the temple treasure history. The panel invited an expert historian to trace the historical references of the temple in various texts and also from the materials of historical value in the temple.
 
It is learnt that once the historical references about the temple treasure are compiled it would be submitted before the Supreme Court. The expert committee also requested for adequate manpower and modern equipment to  carry out the evaluation of the treasure. The manpower requested consist of experts from diverse fields to carry out the requisite radiography, X-ray energy spectroscopy and neutron activation analysis.
In a separate meeting held between the expert committee and the monitoring panel appointed by the Supreme Court decided to wait till September 3 to start the actual evaluation process.
The decision was taken, it is learnt, based on the suggestion that came up in the meeting that the expert panel should carry out the evaluation after the Supreme Court considers the plea filed by the Travancore Royal Family, based on the findings of the Devaprasnam.
The plea will come up for hearing on September 3.
Also, the temple administration has told the committee that it should start the evaluation only after Onam as there will be special poojas and the inflow of devotees will be on the higher side.
The expert panel repeated its request for a permanent office to hold its meeting which has proximity to the temple and the expense to meet the cost of the equipment to be purchased to the State Government.
This was the first joint meeting after the Travancore Royal Family filed a plea in the Supreme Court not to open the B chamber and also not to videograph or photograph the proceedings of the evaluation.

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