Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 14: After years of court battle, controversies and debates, the Ratna Bhandar, the sacred treasury of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri was opened after 46 years on Sunday.
“In accordance with the divine will of Lord Shree Jagannath, the Ratna Bhandar was opened today after 46 long years. I sincerely hope for the success of this monumental endeavour,” informed Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on social networking site.
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 would 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 Inspection Committee Chairman former Orissa High Court judge 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 would be quite challenging since it was 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 the inventory work would take place in the presence of a representative from the Reserve Bank of India and a digital catalogue would 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.
As per inventory last made in 1978, the Ratna Bhandar comprising of Bahar Bhandar (outer chamber) and Bhitar Bhandar (inner chamber) has a total 454 gold articles with a net weight of 12,838 Bharis (128.38 kg) and 293 silver articles weighing 22,153 Bharis (221.53 kg).
The Ratna Bhandar, situated at a height of 11.78 meters and measuring 8.79 meters by 6.74 meters, is located on the northern side of the Jagamohana (assembly hall of temple). These chambers contain the jewels of the three sibling deities — Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath, and Devi Subhadra.
More than 200 years ago, an inventory of gold and silver ornaments and coins was conducted. In 1805, only 64 pieces of jewelry were documented. By 1952, the Srimandir Record of Rights listed 150 gold ornaments in the Bahar Bhandar, along with 180 pieces of gold jewelry and 146 silver items in the Bhitar Bhandar. A decade later, in 1962, an inventory of the Ratna Bhandar revealed 602 ornaments. However, in 1967, verification accounted for only 433 items.
In 1978, a thorough inventory of the ornaments and precious stones was conducted from May 13 to July 23. This inventory found 454 gold articles and 293 silver articles in both chambers. In 2008, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), following instructions from the Orissa High Court, performed a structural inspection of the Ratna Bhandar but could not enter the inner chamber.
For some strange reasons, during its 24 years of rule, the Naveen Patnaik Government had not made any attempts to open Ratna Bhandar although concerns were raised about its structural stability and safety of ornaments. Public interest litigations were filed in Orissa High Court seeking opening of Ratna Bhandar. The HC had also issued notice to the State government seeking status of Ratna Bhandar.
The BJP had made the opening of Ratna Bhandar a major poll plank in 2024 elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also made promises about opening of Ratna Bhandar during election campaigning. On July 4, a month after declaration of election results, the Mohan Charan Majhi Government constituted a high level committee under chairmanship of Justice Rath to supervise the process of inventorization of valuables including jewelleries stored in Ratna Bhandar. The BJP government had dissolved a similar committee constituted under chairmanship of former Supreme Court Judge Justice Arijit Pasayat.
In the second meeting, Justice Rath-led committee decided to open Ratna Bhandar on July 14 under any circumstances. The committee also suggested different standard operating procedures for opening of Ratna Bhandar, inventorization of ornaments and safety of valuables.
Early on Sunday, at 1:28 pm, an auspicious moment was chosen to open Ratna Bhandar. After a series of rituals performed at temples, a 15-member team drawn from various committees entered the temple to oversee the opening of the sacred chambers. They had clad loincloth on occasion of historic moment.
They were joined by snake catchers, a medical team, and disaster response personnel. Rapid response teams were stationed outside the 12th-century temple for safety of valuables. New wooden trunks were brought in to safely transfer the ornaments. These ornaments will be stored in a temporary strong room. The ASI’s technical team promptly began assessing the structural stability of Ratna Bhandar.
