BHUBANESWAR : After a gap of almost four decades, the inner chamber of Shree Jagannath temple’s Ratna Bhandar in Puri was opened this year - an issue that generated a lot of both public curiosity and political face-offs.
While opening of Ratna Bhandar figured top in the agenda of the BJP, it is also one of the first things that the party did after being voted to power in the state. In fact, a day before the government was to hold an important meeting to decide upon the Ratna Bhandar reopening, it dissolved the 12-member committee which was headed by retired Supreme Court judge Arijit Pasayat and constituted a new one headed by Justice Biswanath Rath.
Located on the northern side of the main temple’s Jagamohana, Ratna Bhandar has two chambers - Bahara Bhandar (outer chamber) and Bhitara Bhandar (inner chamber) - containing the jewels of the Holy Trinity.
Articles in the treasury are classified into three categories. Category 1 is the never used ornaments and jewels that are kept in the Bhitara Bhandar and Category 2 comprises those that are only used during ceremonies or festive occasions. Category 3 consists of the ornaments that are of daily use of the Trinity. Categories 2 and 3 jewelleries are kept in Bahara Bhandar which is opened round the year.
After the new committee framed the SOP for the purpose, its members opened the Bahara Bhandar on July 14 and shifted all the ornaments into a room that was designated as temporary Bahara Bhandara.However, Bhitara Bhandar could not be opened due to paucity of time.
Four days later on July 18, locks of the Bhitara Bhandar were broken in presence of committee chairman Justice Rath, temple chief administrator Arabinda Padhee and Puri king Dibyasingha Deb. In an exercise that continued for seven-and-half hours, all contents of the four almirahs besides two wooden chests and one iron chest were emptied from the inner chamber and shifted to the Khata Seja Ghara, the temporary Bhitara Bhandar inside the shrine.
However, the inventorisation could not be immediately held owing to rumours of the presence of secret tunnels and chambers in Ratna Bhandar. To put the rumours to rest, the state government conducted a GPR survey through CSIR-NGRI and ASI which refuted all such claims but detected wide cracks and damages in the treasury.
With repair of the Ratna Bhandar underway, the government has decided to conduct the inventory of both the chambers in the New Year after the work is completed by the ASI. The ASI has targeted to complete the work in three months.