The Culture That Is India: Formerly Royal Dynasty Keeps Control of One of World's Richest Temples

Everything I know about India's Gold Temples I learned from FT Alphaville's David Keohane, then resident in Mumbai, now reporting for the FT mothership from Paris. Some links below.
From Reuters:

India’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld the right of a former royal dynasty to run the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, one of the world’s richest places of worship, after the state government tried to take it over when the family patriarch died.

When one of the vaults of the towering centuries-old Hindu temple in Thiruvananthanpuram in Kerala state was opened in 2011, it was found to hold diamonds by the sackful along with tonnes of gold coins and jewellery - a hoard estimated at over $20 billion....

....MORE

Previously:

September 2013
India's Central Bank Reiterates "We won't take Temple or Shrine gold"

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....Sripuram Golden Temple:

....MUCH MORE

October 2013 
India: "Holy man's dream leads to government hunt for $40b gold treasure"

September 2015
What On Earth Is India Doing With All That Gold?

Somehow related:

Can Hindu Deities Open Brokerage Accounts Allowing them to Trade Securities?

UPDATE: Bombay High Court Rules Hindu Deities MAY NOT Trade Securities
No demat accounts for Hindu gods...

Indian Central Bank Issues Guidelines on Dematerialized Gold in Effort to Reduce Need to Import Physical