Recent audits by the Kerala government into the Guruvayur Devaswom, which oversees the sacred Sri Krishna Temple, have exposed shocking lapses in the management of the temple’s treasures. These findings, covering the 2019–20 and 2020–21 financial years, reveal that the administration of one of Kerala’s wealthiest temples has long been plagued by poor recordkeeping, secrecy, and misuse of assets.

The audits show that valuable items such as gold, silver, ivory, and even the small red seeds known as manjadikuru, offered by devotees, are vulnerable due to weak monitoring. Despite the temple’s immense wealth and religious importance, its management remains unorganized and lacking transparency.

One of the most serious concerns raised in the audit relates to how ivory and elephant tusks are handled at the Punnathur Kotta elephant sanctuary, operated by the Guruvayur Devaswom. The 2019–20 audit recorded that ivory collected during tusk trimming amounted to 522.86 kilograms, yet none of it was handed over to the Forest Department, as required by law. This omission raises suspicions of illegal possession and breach of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which strictly regulates ivory ownership.

Mishandling of Ivory Sparks Legal and Ethical Alarm

The audit further detailed how ivory was moved and stored during April to November 2019 without proper documentation. The report mentioned different weights — 505 kg (26th September 2019), 14.18 kg (19th September 2019), 2.35 kg remaining from 2018–19, 730 grams (22nd April 2019), 320 grams (14th July 2019), and 280 grams (29th July 2019). None of these transfers were backed by mandatory paperwork such as the mahazar (official seizure memorandum) or handover receipts, leaving a huge gap in accountability.

The 2020–21 audit found further financial distress. The total expenditure of Devaswom establishments, including guest houses, was about ₹25 crore more than their total revenue. The temple’s spending was found to be three times higher than its income, a situation not witnessed since 2016–17.

The report also quoted a letter from the Assistant Conservator of Forests, directing the Devaswom to submit a list of tusks and ivory pieces in its possession within ten days. However, the Devaswom failed to respond or surrender the ivory. This neglect not only violates forest laws but also suggests that a large quantity of ivory could be outside legal control, unrecorded and potentially misused.

Temple Management Blames Previous Regime

When approached, Guruvayur Devaswom chairman V.K. Vijayan claimed that the matter concerned the period before the current board took charge. He explained that the issue had already been brought before the court and that the board had submitted its explanation there.
“These observations refer to a period before our tenure. Since 2022, six elephants have died, and in every case, the postmortem was conducted in the presence of forest officials. We never received the ivory from those elephants, only the postmortem reports,” Vijayan clarified.

Inside the temple, the auditors noticed shocking irregularities in the double-lock register, which is meant to track the gold and silver articles used in rituals. Many of these sacred objects showed unexplained weight loss over time. For instance, one silver pot became lighter by 1.19 kilograms within ten months, while a silver lamp lost several hundred grams.

In some cases, returned items were even replaced with cheaper metals — a gold crown swapped for a silver decoration, and a 2.65 kg silver container returned weighing only 750 grams. No investigation or disciplinary action followed, raising serious questions about internal oversight and possible corruption.

Seventeen Sacks of Manjadikuru Mysteriously Disappear

The 2019–20 audit also revealed another bizarre case — the disappearance of 17 sacks of manjadikuru from the temple’s western tower. These red seeds, offered by devotees as symbols of luck, had been auctioned for ₹100 per kilogram, but the bidder never collected them.

Later, CCTV footage showed these sacks being loaded onto a Devaswom tractor by health department workers. Officials later claimed that the sacks were merely moved to a nearby godown to clear space, but no records exist showing where they were taken or stored afterward. This unexplained disappearance adds yet another layer of mystery to the temple’s already troubling management practices.

Costly Offerings and Donations Left Unrecorded

The audit also exposed how many expensive donations and offerings never entered the temple’s official registers. For example, the listing of metal items like copper, bronze, and panchaloha had stopped as early as 2016.

One striking instance was a two-tonne four-eared bronze vessel, valued at around ₹15 lakh, donated in 2022 by a devotee from Palakkad. Despite its size and worth, no receipt was issued, and the donation was never entered in the official inventory or assigned for safekeeping.

Furthermore, the auditors discovered that costly offerings such as Kashmiri saffron, which the temple itself buys for ₹1.47 lakh per kilogram, were recorded only in a personal register maintained by a deputy administrator. These private records bypassed the official receipt system, keeping expensive gifts outside formal scrutiny.

No Physical Verification of Valuables for Over Four Decades

Perhaps the most alarming revelation is that the Guruvayur Temple has not conducted a physical verification of its gold, silver, and precious items for over 40 years — a clear violation of the Guruvayur Devaswom Act, 1978, and Devaswom Rules, 1980.

The law mandates that every year, a detailed physical verification report must be submitted to the Devaswom Commissioner by June 30. Even after a 2009 directive that made the Chief Finance and Accounts Officer personally responsible for this task, no such checks were carried out. The audits for 2019–20 and 2020–21 both confirmed that no certificates, inspection reports, or updated records were available — even after formal requests from the Kerala State Audit Department in 2023.

Responding to these criticisms, Chairman Vijayan stated, “Under the present governing body, all offerings, including gold and silver, are being recorded and maintained in full compliance with audit requirements.”

Yet, these repeated findings point to something deeper — a systemic failure in oversight and transparency. Unless the Devaswom board takes strong corrective action and ensures strict compliance, the temple’s sacred wealth — meant for Lord Krishna and protected by law — will remain at risk of neglect and misuse.