Inner chamber of Puri Jagannath temple’s Ratna Bhandar opened after 46 years
A 12-member team shifted the valuables in four wooden chests to a temporary strong room inside the temple premises
More than four and a half decades after it was last opened for audit, the inner chamber of the Ratna Bhandar or the treasury containing precious jewelleries of Lord Jagannath and his siblings in the 12th century Jagannath temple of Puri was opened on Sunday afternoon, breaking its three locks.
A 12-member team led by chief administrator of the Jagannath temple, Arabinda Padhee, and comprising Orissa high court judge Biswanath Rath, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) superintendent and several temple servitors among others, broke the lock of the inner chamber of the Ratna Bhandar, more than one and a half hours after the team entered the outer chamber of the treasury. The team then shifted the valuables in four wooden chests from there to a temporary strong room in Changda Mekap room inside the temple premises. However, the team did not open the wooden chests and almirahs in the inner chamber due to paucity of time.
“After the team entered the outer chamber of Ratna Bhandar at 1.28pm, it spent close to one and a half hours shifting the valuables from there to the temporary strongroom inside the temple premises. The team had to cut open the three locks of the inner chamber as we could not open it using the keys that were given to us. However, all the team members decided against opening the wooden chests kept inside the inner chamber as there was not much time left to do that. The ornaments and jewels in the inner chamber would be shifted to a temporary strong room in Khata Seja Ghara inside the temple premises another day as the temple administration will be busy in Bahuda Yatra (return car festival) and other rituals from Monday,” said Padhee.
The missing keys of the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar has been a major issue in Odisha since 2018 when a team led by chief secretary PK Jena tried to open it but had to return as the keys could not be located. Following a public uproar, the then Naveen Patnaik government instituted a judicial probe headed by retired high court judge Raghubir Das on June 6, 2018, two months after the keys were found to be missing. Justice Das submitted his inquiry report to the state government on November 29, 2018. Around ₹22.27 lakh was spent for the judicial inquiry, but the report was never made public.
Situated close to the Jagamohana (the assembly hall) of the Jagannath temple, the Ratna Bhandar standing at a height of 11.78 metres with a length 8.79 metres and width of 6.74 metres looks just like a temple. It has two chambers — Bahara Bhandar (outer chamber) and Bhitara Bhandar (inner chamber) — containing the jewels of the Trinity. According to “Madala Panji”, the official chronicle of the temple dating back to 12th century, Eastern Ganga monarch Anangabhima Dev III donated more than 250 kg of gold while other kings such as Gajapati Kapilendra Dev donated gold, jewels and utensils.
The outer chambers are opened on festive occasions when the servitors take out jewelleries to bedeck the trinities, but the jewels in both the chambers have not been audited since 1978 when a 9-member committee headed by the then governor of Odisha B D Sharma did an inventory between May 13 and July 23 that year. The inventory revealed the presence of a total 454 gold articles with a net weight of 128.38 kg and 293 silver articles weighing 221.53 kg in both the chambers of the treasury. The inner chamber had 367 gold items weighing 43.64 kg and 231 silver items weighing 148.78 kg while the outer chamber had 87 gold items weighing 84.74 kg and 62 silver items weighing 73.64 kg. The inner chamber was opened twice in 1982 and 1985 to take out some gold and silver jewelleries for making new ornaments of Lord Balabhadra as well as silver cladding of the gate in sanctum sanctorum, but no audit was done.
Head of the audit supervisory committee, justice(retired) Biswanath Rath said the team saw five wooden chests, 4 wooden almirahs and 1 steel almirah in the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar. “Some dust-like material was also found on floor. Besides, many items were lying on the floor. Many other items might have been there as we did not check the backside of the almirahs.
As the Bahuda Jatra (return car festival of Lord Jagannath and his siblings) is scheduled tomorrow, it is not possible to transfer the containers from the inner chamber to a temporary strong room in a day. We need more time for shifting,” said Rath. A member of the committee said rainwater seepage seemed to be a major issue in the inner chamber as the floor was wet.
He said only after the valuables inside the inner chambers are shifted to a strong room, then the ASI will inspect the structure for its structural safety. “Structural safety of Srimandir is our topmost concern. We did not open the containers. We will fix a date at our next meeting for shifting all the valuables to the temporary strong room. After repairing work is done by ASI, we will keep the valuables back in the inner chamber. The audit and inventorisation of the jewels would take place only inside the inner chamber,” he added.
Incidentally, Rath said two of the three locks on the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar were not sealed.
Hours before the Ratna Bhandar opening, the team prayed to Lord Lokanath, the guardian deity of the treasury and got the “Agyanmala” from him signaling their consent. After the Ratna Bhandar was opened, several bats that were present inside flew away. The team also offered prayer to Goddess Bimala and Goddess Lakshmi.
Before the Ratna Bhandar was opened, the assistance of Snake Helpline was sought. “We were asked to discharge our duty in the process of opening the Ratna Bhandar. However, we were not called up into the inner chamber,” said Subhendu Mallick, the Snake Helpline chief. Dr. CBK Mohanty, a member of Ratna Bhandar monitoring committee, ruled out presence of snakes inside the Ratna Bhandar. “I could not see any snake inside there. We did not find any awkward situation inside the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar,” he said.
Odisha chief minister Mohan Majhi took to social media and expressed his joy at the opening of the treasure trove of Lord Jagannath. Majhi offered prayers to Lord Jagannath seeking blessings for the 4.5 crore people of Odisha. “As per your wish, the Odia race has started moving forward with its Asmita. The four doors of the temple were first opened at your will. Today, after 46 years, your Ratna Bhandar was opened. I strongly believe that this will be successful,” he wrote on X.
The opening of Ratna Bhandar had become a major poll plank during the recent assembly elections, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) highlighting the ‘disappearance’ of the treasury key in 2018. From PM Modi to Amit Shah, all BJP leaders raised the slogan of ‘Odia Asmita’ (Odia pride) to oust the Biju Janata Dal government led by Naveen Patnaik. The BJP had in its elections manifesto promised an audit and inventorisation of the treasury if voted to power.