The dream of a village sage in India has led the government plan for unearthing 1,000 tons of gold treasure, supposedly hidden under a ruined palace in Uttar Pradesh state.
The sage Yogi Swami Shobhan Sarkar informed the central bank about his dream of the buried gold, after which the state Archaeological Survey of India sent a team of archaeologists to the village of Daundia Khera in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India.
The head archaeologist, Parveen Kumar Mishra, told Reuters that their plan to dig two 100-square-metre blocks beside the palace is due to start on October 18. However, Mishra warned that it’s not confirmed that a treasure is buried under the village’s soil.
“We are still searching for the exact location and whether there is any treasure. It is all in the future,” he said. “We often just find pottery and metal antiquities, like agricultural tools or kitchen tools.”
Yogi Sarkar considers what he dreamt as a “hidden treasure for the country.” He told the Mail Today newspaper that the gold belonged to a nineteenth-century ruler, Rao Ram Bux Singh, whose spirit has been roaming the palace and asking for the gold to be dug up. He wishes the government manages to dig it and help India recover from an economic crisis with the treasure.
In a study of recent trends in gold imports by India and their impact on external sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) brought forth a fact that gold imports are contributing to the large current account deficit. As per media reports, the Indian gold imports totaled $54 billion in the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2013. On average, Indians buy 2.3 tons of gold every day; eventually the precious metal is passed onto successive generations in various forms and kept in reserve as emergency funds.
Recently, RBI has sent letter to inquire some of the country’s richest temples for their gold holdings contributed by religious followers over centuries, though the concerned authorities are reluctant in unveiling the asset details worth billions of dollars.
Considering both external and internal factors affecting the Indian economy, the media reports speculated that Yogi Sarkar’s dream treasure would possibly worth at least $40 billion, capable of replacing all of India’s imports for a year and bettering the country’s economy.
