Puri Jagannath temple’s Ratna Bhandar opened after 46 years. Lock broken, no snakes guarding jewels

Tempers ran high outside the temple as visitations were stopped. While some priests welcomed the opening of the inner treasury, others said 'it was not a good sign'.

Devotees throng the Jagannath temple before the opening of its Ratna Bhandar, in Puri | ANI

Puri: After over four decades, the inner treasury of the Puri Jagannath temple’s ‘Ratna Bhandar’ was opened Sunday. A day earlier, the Odisha government had given permission for the same. 

This comes at a time when the annual ‘Rath Yatra’ of the temple’s three sibling deities — Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra — is underway. No immediate repair work or inventorisation of jewels kept in the treasury was carried out. 

A member of the temple’s managing committee told ThePrint: “The ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) will do an assessment of the structural damage after shifting the inner Ratna Bhandar’s jewels and ornaments. This will happen on a later date.”

While legend has it that serpents guard the valuables inside the treasury, no snakes were found inside the vault. No water was found to be dripping through the walls, as claimed by Puri king Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb last year, it is learnt.

The jewels of the outer Ratna Bhandar have been shifted to a strong room, Chief Administrator of the Jagannath temple Arabinda Kumar Padhee told reporters here, adding that inventory of the inner treasury’s jewels will happen later.

Teams of the ASI, snake charmers, snake rescuers, and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) were deployed to open the treasury. One company of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) was also deployed at the temple for crowd management. 

The teams went in wearing langots (loincloths) as per tradition. Elaborate rituals were performed before getting into the treasury. Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, and Lokanath, or Hindu god Shiva, were worshipped. The head priest of Puri’s Lokanath temple came to oversee the rituals. 

The keys to the lock of the Ratna Bhandar didn’t work and the lock had to be broken for the teams to enter, said IAS officer Parhi.

At least five chests, red and yellow in colour, were also brought to the temple. Jewels from the outer Ratna Bhandar have been kept in the chests until repair work of the inner treasury is completed.

Speaking to reporters, Justice Biswanath Rath, head of the high-level committee constituted for the inventorisation of the Ratna Bhandar jewels, said the treasury was opened at 1.28 pm Sunday, and 11 people entered. A new lock has been placed on the inner treasury, and a new key has been sent to the treasurer via the district collector, he added. 

“The jewels are kept in an almirah, two trunks as well as some boxes lying underneath. We didn’t touch anything, since we were short on time as arrangements for tomorrow’s (rath) yatra need to be done,” he said, adding that all procedures were videographed.

Originally under the care of the Gajapati of Puri, the Ratna Bhandar was first opened in 1905 by the British administration for ‘inspection’ and inventoried in 1926. It was last inventoried in 1978 under the supervision of a committee led by the then Odisha Governor Bhagabat Dayal Sharma.

Meanwhile, tempers were running high in front of the Jagannath temple as visitations were stopped and the crowd was restricted by barricades placed along the circumference of the temple compound. 

“I came from Kolkata just to see the temple, and I’m not being allowed. This is not fair,” said Biswa Chatterjee, a devotee.

Somnath, a temple priest, told ThePrint: “We are very happy that within 102 days of the government forming, the government has been able to open the treasury. We must know and determine that all the jewels are intact and conduct necessary repair work.”

However, other priests appeared disgruntled by the exercise. “Lord Jagannath is not here. And we are opening the treasury behind his back. It is not good,” one of them said. As part of the annual rath procession, the three sibling deities are taken to the Gundicha temple aboard chariots. According to tradition, they stay at the temple for nine days, and then return.

Another priest said the opening of the treasure trove shows Odisha is headed for difficult times. “Balabhadra recently fell on people. Now we’re opening the treasury. These are not good signs,” he said, referring to last week’s incident when the idol of Balabhadra fell on servitors while being taken to the Gundicha temple.

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)