Silver found in Indian Monastery

[osoab]

522 silver bricks found in Math (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/522-silver-bricks-found-math-169)


Feb. 25: The Puri district administration on Saturday seized 522 silver bricks — each of them weighing between 30 and 35 kg — from Emar Math, an ancient monastery near the Lord Jagannath temple.

“A total of 522 pieces weighing 18 tonne 87 kg and 650 grams were recovered from the mutt premises. The market value of the recovered silver would be about Rs 90 crore,” said Mr Sanjay Kumar, Puri, superintendent of police.
The bricks were kept in four separate wooden chests, called sinduk. The police is investigating as to from where the bricks were procured.

The huge stock of silver bricks in the monastery came to light after arrest on Friday of two masons who were trying to sell two bricks in the local market. The masons — Barun Nayak and Akshaya Das — said they stole the bricks from Emar Math while working there. They had been hired by Odisha’s archaeology department for renovation of the Mutt building. They said old plaster from the ceiling had fallen on the boxes.

The mystified Puri police raided the monastery on this information and seized the bricks. Most of the bricks have the words “Calcutta Mint” embossed on them, while two have “Shanghai Mint.”

Monastery sources said the bricks belonged to the British period and were donated by kings to meet unforeseen emergencies. “Lakhs of rupees are spent for the day-to-day rituals at the Lord Jagannath temple. Emar Math, as the custodian of the Jagannath temple, had stored the bricks since long to meet any unforeseen situation,” said a member of the monastery.

The recovered wealth was being guarded by armed security forces at the Mutt premises before being shifted to a safe place.

Why in the hell were they trying to sell them at the same time in an open market? Why in the hell didn't they at least stash the rest of it?

Argh.

The find of a lifetime, and those two fucked it up royally. Sorry for cursing, but this warrants it.

[osoab]

Treasure room in math found empty (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhubaneswar/Treasure-room-in-math-found-empty/articleshow/7589996.cms)


BHUBANESWAR: The state endowment wing, which is the custodian of religious institutions in the state, had last year found 41 pieces of silver in one of the rooms of Puri's Emar Math. But they had no inkling into the presence of such a huge amount of ancient treasure trove that was found on the Math's premises by the officials on Saturday. Nearly 18 tonnes of silver bricks were found stashed in a sealed room.

During a routine inspection of the Math in August last year, endowment officials stumbled upon 41 pieces of silver slabs in one of the rooms. There are around 150 rooms in the Emar Math, built nearly 700 years ago, sources said. Incidentally, the Math is located right in front of Jagannath temple.

"During an inventory last year, we found some silver bricks from a sealed room. But we had no inkling into the presence of the mysterious room from where such a large number of silver bricks was found on Saturday," endowment commissioner Chakradhar Kar told TOI.

The police, while probing a burglary, traced 522 pieces of silver slabs, each weighing between 35-40kg hidden in four wooden treasuries of the room. These rooms, incidentally did not have any doors or windows.

Earlier on Saturday, seer of the Math Rajgopal Ramanuj expressed his ignorance about the presence of the room inside the Math.

Meanwhile, the endowment department has decided to conduct inventory of articles of various Maths and temples, following the discovery of a staggering Rs 80 crore-treasure trove from the ancient Emar Math.

"Centuries-old Maths and temples in the state might have stashed movable treasures in their institutions. We will start making a list of their property, mostly the movable ones," deputy endowment commissioner Sanjay Swain said.

There are around 16,700 temples and 300 Maths in the state, sources said. Puri alone has around 89 Maths, the maximum among other districts. Some researchers, however, said about 120 Maths exist in the temple town, of which nearly 40, including Emar Math, are more than 600 years old.

The inventory would start in Puri. "We would appeal to the Math caretakers to co-operate with us in assessing their property. They should not conceal their property details. As per the Hindu Religious Endowment Act, religious institutions should furnish their property details. It will not, however, be divulged to the public," Swain said.

Meanwhile, the police and endowment officials on Sunday found an empty treasury from another room in the Math. Police suspect the Math authorities connived with some anti-socials to sell off the treasures. "Suspecting involvement of Math authorities in the burglary, we have kept an eye on their movement," Puri DSP (City) R K Paikray said. The silver slabs are now in police custody on the Math premises, Paikray added. "Forensic officials on Sunday examined the quality of the metal and described the bricks as pure and assumed it was at least 150 years old," the DSP said.

Endowment deputy commissioner Sanjay Swain said: "For the time being, we would include the treasures in the property list of Emar Math. If any disputes surface in future, the matter would be taken to court."

[osoab]

Finally found a pic with this article.

http://www.deccanherald.com/images/editor_images1/2011/02/26/brick-inside.jpg

Silver worth Rs 90 crore found in Puri mutt (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/141320/silver-worth-rs-90-crore.html)


The local police in the temple town of Puri on Saturday recovered 539 pieces of silver bricks worth more than Rs 90 crore from the ancient Emar Mutt near the 12th century Sri Jagannath Temple here.

The ‘hidden treasure’, weighing about 19 tonnes, was stored in three wooden boxes, Puri Deputy Superintendent of Police R K Paikray told Deccan Herald. The treasure came to light when the Puri police raided the mutt on Saturday following a tip-off from the local police in the coastal district of Dhenkanal.

Three days back, the Dhenkanal police arrested Barun Baral and Akshyay Das of Kuttam village while they were trying to sell a few silver bricks. They were engaged as masons by the Orissa State Archaeology Department during renovation of the mutt a few months ago. “We seized three silver bricks worth Rs 24 lakh besides and Rs one lakh from them,” Dhenkanal SP S K Gajbhiyee said. During interrogation, the duo confessed to have stolen the bricks from the Mutt.

According to them, while working on the ceiling, a chunk of the cement plaster came off and fell on the wooden boxes below. To their surprise, they found boxes, called “Sinduka” in Oriya, filled with silver bricks in a room closed by concrete walls from all sides. A few other workers are also believed to have stolen the bricks with embossed seals as UAE, Japan, China and Dubai. Though the employees of the mutt insisted that they were not aware of “the secrete room”, the police are not ready to buy the claim.

“How can it be possible that persons residing inside the mutt for years would not be aware of a room? We are investigating into the matter in detail,” he said. Emar Math is one of the several ancient mutts governed by the Orissa Religious Hindu Endowment Act while Sri Jagannath temple is managed by the Jagannath Temple Act.

The bricks did not find a place in the list of properties prepared by the state Endowment Commission. Deputy Commissioner of state Endowment Commission said the actual claimant of the property would be decided by the court.

[MNeagle]

wowser :o

[hoarder]

That's over a half million troy ounces! That's even bigger than my stash! :D

[Neuro]

I was at this particular temple in '94, I was aproached by a creepy Indian guy, with a girl standing some 15 feet behind, suggesting that the girl and I could do Kama Sutra in the 'forest' next to the temple. The forest was some sparse trees, with full insight. I rejected the fine offer from the gentleman! They had some fine Banguli's in Puri though. Balls of marijuana and sugar...

[pointinghelles]

Silver has been used for thousands of years for ornaments and utensils for trade and as a basis for many monetary systems. Silver mentioned alchemists named Luna as was associated with the Moon as well as large and diverse goddesses month.

[Sparky]

This is why estimating the true above-ground supply of silver is difficult. How many of these stashes exist? That's why estimates of world supply less than 1B ounces to me seems ridiculous.

[SilverMagnet]

How many of these stashes exist?


I can only account for my house but I would say not many.

[MNeagle]

'Billions worth' of treasure found in Indian temple

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/NR8lBLSHOrNcNqvFbfqx6Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9NDA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/afp/afp.gif (http://www.afp.com/)

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 on Saturday.

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.

Authorities also plan to set up a commando force for security, said Kerala director general of police Jacob Punnoose.

"Now it?s known all over the world that the Padmanabhaswamy temple has jewels worth billions of rupees we have decided to assign it maximum security," Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told AFP.

http://news.yahoo.com/billions-worth-treasure-found-indian-temple-183022928.html

interesting comments in original link too...

[Gaillo]

...has forced police to sharply step install security cameras and alarms.

This looks like it was translated from Indian English to Japanese, then to Chinese, then back into English. By a drunken Gaelic-speaking Scottish linguist after a 13 day bender! ;D

[Dogman]

This looks like it was translated from Indian English to Japanese, then to Chinese, then back into English. By a drunken Gaelic-speaking Irish linguist after a 13 day bender! ;D

LOL , Ever read any motherboard manuals way back when jumpers were used to setup the board? Way before bio's could take care of the settings? Now that was a challenge, in more ways than one.

Clock speeds were fast if you were running a 8088-2 at 8 meg and had one meg of ram. ;D

[Gaillo]

LOL , Ever read any motherboard manuals way back when jumpers were used to setup the board? Way before bio's could take care of the settings? Now that was a challenge, in more ways than one.

Clock speeds were fast if you were running a 8088-2 at 8 meg and had one meg of ram. ;D

I remember those days... my first 80386SX-16 machine seemed to SCREAM - I couldn't believe how fast it was compare to my first IBM compatible machine (a 4mhz 80286). I thought that 386sx was operating near the speed of light! That machine would barely run a toaster these days, I routinely design 20mhz processors into my industrial control boards, many of which in all honesty do not much MORE than a modern state-of-the-art toaster! ;)

I think my SLOWEST PC currently is about 300x as fast (if you count the bata bus width, which you should!) as that early "speed demon"... amazing how fast information technology has been allowed to change compared to mankind's other technologies!

P.S. Remember "Expanded Memory"? Those HUGE plug-in cards that were wall-to-wall chips meant to add 512k to your PC? Cost about $1,500 if ypu were lucky enough to find one in stock? I think they're pretty much GIVING AWAY several times that much memory as novelty pen USB drives at staples these days... Henny Penny walked away with a 2MB flash drive pen a few weeks ago from their clearance table for something like $1.79! :o

[Dogman]

Memory was pure gold, and if you had one meg on the board or total , you really thought you had something! My progression was 8080 ,8088 , 386 (laptop in ham shack) and up.

286-20 MHz clock with a Harris math co-processor (screamer) it was faster than some of the early 486 machines and so on.

Back then we were obsessed about memory, would drive for hours if found at a good price. to max out the 486 memory limit.

Now those were the fun/headache learning days.

P/s still have a box that has a amd k6-2/300 with a single speed cd drive one of the first out. And use a 386 laptop with 8 meg's in my radio shack, running my KAM all mode controller.

To the op, sorry about going off topic from the op, ;D