BHUBANESWAR: The Justice Biswanath Rath Committee has proposed to open the Ratna Bhandar of Shree Jagannath temple on July 14. The temple management committee will seek the state government’s approval for it.
The high-level committee constituted under the chairmanship of Orissa High Court Judge Justice Rath for supervising the inventorization of jewellery and other valuables stored in Ratna Bhandar of Shree Jagannath temple met for the second time at the SJTA office in Puri on Tuesday.
It was decided in the meeting that both the outer and inner enclosures of the Ratna Bhandar can be opened on July 14 for both inventorization and conservation works only after receiving the State Government’s approval on it.
“As per the temple rules, we have submitted the proceedings of July 6 and today’s meeting and our proposal on opening Ratna Bhandar to the temple management committee. The management committee will meet and send the proposal to the state government for approval,” Justice Rath told reporters after the meeting. The Justice Rath panel has also drawn up the SOP for opening the Treasury, the inventory, and conservation work, which will also be submitted to the management committee for seeking government approval.
The Ratna Bhandar keys will be handed over to the panel by the temple administration on July 14. Justice Rath said all members of the high-level committee have agreed to the suggestion that even if the keys to the Treasury do not match, Ratna Bhandar will be opened on July 14. The location where the ornaments, precious jewels, and other valuables in the treasury will be transferred during the conservation process that has been identified. “Since temple records state that the jewels and ornaments of the trinity cannot be taken outside the Srimandir, the designated room for storing the valuables is inside the temple. In this room, the jewels and ornaments will be stored as per the schedule in Categories 1, 2 and 3,” he said.
Category 1 is the never-used ornaments and jewels that are kept in the Bhitara Bhandar and Category 2 is those that are only used during ceremonies or festive occasions. Category 3 are the ornaments that are of daily use to the Trinity. Categories 2 and 3 jewellery are kept in the outer enclosure of the treasury, which is opened year-round.
Stating that inventory of the valuables is a lengthy process and the exact time period needed for the purpose cannot be ascertained as of now, Justice Rath said separate teams of experts will be formed who will examine the nature and character of the ornaments besides the precious stones inside the treasury.
“We are not going towards the valuation of the jewellery and ornaments. But since these are very old ornaments and stones, we would want to know the nature of the ornaments, character, and carat of the diamonds, pearls, rubies and other precious stones kept inside the Ratna Bhandar. Separate teams will be appointed by the government for this purpose,” he said.
As Lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra, and Lord Balabhadra will return to the temple on July 19, following Niladri Bije, there are chances that the inventorization and conservation works may hamper ‘darshan’. “But the SOP that we have proposed takes care of this aspect. There will be some issues with the ‘darshan’ of the deities for the devotees, but we will take the utmost care that temple rituals are not affected during the process,” he said.
