“Will be sitting after 5-6 days to get inside inner Bhandar”: Inspection Committee Chairman of Sri Jagannath Temple

Puri (Odisha) [India], July 14 (ANI): After the Ratna Bhandar of the Shri Jagannath Temple was opened today after over four decades, Justice Biswanath Rath, Inspection Committee Chairman, said on Sunday that the outer bhandar was opened today, but the authorities will try after 5-6 days to open the inner bhandar.

Rath told ANI that they broke the lock of the inner bhandar but due to insufficient time, they resealed it today.

“As scheduled, we proceeded to take the blessings of Lord Jagannath and proceeded to open Inner Bhandar and Outer Bhandar. We entered the temple by 12:00 noon. We opened the Outer Bhandar, shifted all the ornaments to the scheduled place and sealed them. We have handed over the new keys to the desired persons. Thereafter we made an attempt to open the inner Bhandar, but the key did not work. As per the SoP, we broke the locks and entered,” he said.

“We have just visualised the position there. Since we were there for five hours and did not have time, we thought it was appropriate to reseal it using new locks. We have decided that we will be sitting after 5-6 days to get inside the inner Bhandar and to take stock of the ornaments,” he added.

He also mentioned that two sets of videography have been taken for record purposes.

Chief Administrator of Shree Jagannatha Temple Office, Arabinda Kumar Padhee said that all the valuables from the outer bhandar were shifted to the temporary strong room.

“Ratna Bhandar of the Shree Jagannatha Temple in Puri was opened today. The outer Ratna Bandar was opened in the beginning. All the valuables were shifted to the temporary strong room. Thereafter, we opened the inner Ratna Bhandar as well. As per the SOP, we broke open the lock of the inner Ratna Bhandar then all the members went around the inner store of valuables. The videography recordings are only for our record purposes, not for any publicity or any media purpose,” Padhee said.

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.