After more than four decades, Ratna Bhandar of Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri re-opens

Puri (Odisha) [India], July 14 (ANI): The ‘Ratna Bhandar’ (treasure trove) of the Shri Jagannath Temple has finally been opened after more than four decades on Sunday.

The Ratna Bhandar of the Shri Jagannath Temple was opened following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by the Odisha government. On Saturday, the Odisha government gave approval for the opening of the Ratna Bhandar after carrying out the inventorization of valuables, including pieces of jewellery stored there.

To commemorate this occasion, the Office of the Chief Minister of Odisha, taking to X, said, “Jai Jagannath Oh Lord! You are rhythmic. The whole world is oppressed by your desire. You are the heartbeat of the orthodox nation… The four doors of the temple were first opened at your will. Today, after 46 years of your will, the gem was opened with a great purpose…I strongly believe that this great work will be successful…”

Special boxes were also brought to Shri Jagannath Temple ahead of the re-opening of ‘Ratna Bhandar’ (Treasure Trove) today.

Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Chief Arabinda Padhee says, “Odisha government has approved the SOP for opening the Ratna Bhandar. As per the decision, today the Ratna Bhandar is being opened as per set guidelines. Authorised representatives from the various ‘sewa’ groups, officials from the ASI, representatives of Shri Gajapati Maharaj and others would be there. The entire proceedings will be video recorded for our records, not for publicity and will be strictly confidential.”

He further stated that there will be three steps in SOPs to be followed for the opening and inventorization of the valuables in the Ratna Bhandar.

“There are three steps to the SOP: The first is the opening of the outer ratna bhandar. For the inner Ratna Bhandar, there is another set of guidelines. There is also a temporary, strong room… Once the shift from Ratna Bhandar to the strong room has been made, we will inventory the valuables. We seek the blessings of Mahaprabhu that the Ratna Bhandar gets opened easily, and the subsequent steps will follow,” Padhee said.

The ‘Ratna Bhandar’ (Treasure Trobe) of the Lord Jagannath Temple in Puri was set to be opened at 1:28 pm on Sunday, following SOPs issued by the state government.

Speaking on this, Inspection Committee Chairman Justice Biswanath Rath said, “As per the discussion in the meeting and the suggestions of the ‘Purohits’ and the ‘mukti mandap’, the right time for the opening of the Ratna Bhandar is 1:28 pm.”

He further said that the process will be quite challenging since it is still unknown to them about the position of the Ratna Bhandar since it was last opened in 1985.

“Today we convened a meeting in which we decided to go ahead with the opening and taking care of the ornaments… The process will be carried out with two sets of video recordings and there will be two certifications… It will be a challenge since we do not know the position inside since it last opened in 1985… We’ll open the locks today, in any case,” Justice Rath said.

Speaking on the re-opening of the Ratna Bhandar, Odisha Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan said that the inventory work will take place in the presence of a representative from the Reserve Bank of India and a digital catalogue will be made after the counting is done.

“We had requested the involvement of the Reserve Bank of India in this and a representative of the Reserve Bank of India will be included in it… After counting the ornaments, we will create a digital catalogue, which will include photographs, their weight and other things like their quality. A digital catalogueue will be created with all the things; the digital catalogueue will be a reference document,” he said.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will be doing repair works in the Ratna Bhandar, which also looks after the maintenance of the 12th century shrine. The Treasury was last opened in 1978.