The wonders of south-west India

Let's dive into Tirupanantapuram's best places to explore.

I guess by revealing the answer to our first opening clue of the podcast.

So the location to one of the richest and most mysterious temples in the world.

This is the Sri Padmanabha Haswami temple.

Have you visited Stephen?

Yes, yes, of course, and it is a spectacular temple.

I mean, it's quite interesting because it's a kind of cream-coloured, highly ornate carved temple, but it's in suburban streets.

So as you approach, you're sort of wandering around these little alleyways and streets, and then suddenly in the centre of this community is this very powerful, enigmatic, energetic temple.

Wow.

And it's renowned for its grandeur and home to a treasure trove of priceless artifacts, including gold, jewelry, precious stones.

And I found it interesting when researching the temple that in 2011, five of the six vaults were opened and their treasure was estimated to be worth around $22 billion.

The temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu, which is one of the principal deities in Hinduism.

And other than expected treasures like gold, et cetera, they also found currency from the Roman Empire, Venice, Portugal, and Napoleonic France.

The one vault that they didn't open, which is named Vault B, is said to be sacred to the deity and opening it would allegedly inflict curses.

But the drama doesn't stop there because in 2016, it was reported that a significant quantity of the gold had gone missing.

So there's a lot of mystery around the temple, isn't there?

Yeah, there is.

There is.

As you say, well, if you start unpacking it from the beginning, you know, the two great, the two probably greater driving forces in Hinduism, you've got the Vishnites and the Shivites, you know, the followers of Vishnu, the followers of Shiva.

And there's quite a difference, you know, in attitude, approach with these.

And this, of course, being a temple dedicated to Vishnu, as you say, And also it's one of the hundred or so very sacred abodes of Vishnu, recognised as one of his sacred abodes.

So it is a very important temple.

I think also the other aspect of it, Dravidian style of its architecture is really particular to southern India.

So you get two different architectural styles, as I've just described, between the north and south with food, the same with architectural styles.

And this is very emblematic of the south to me.