Mystery shrouds Lord Jagannath’s ‘Ratna Bhadar’
8 min readBy PTI
BHUBANESHWAR: The thriller over Lord Jagannath’s ‘Ratna Bhandar’ has deepened because the Odisha authorities has “no plan” to reopen the interior chamber of the treasury of the Twelfth-century shrine in Puri and refused to share details about the temple’s asset to an RTI activist, devotees claimed on Monday.
Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) below the state regulation division, didn’t reply to the queries of Bolangir-based RTI activist Hemant Panda.
The State Information Commission has not too long ago imposed a advantageous on the SJTA’s officer S Ok Chatterjee for not sharing data within the public curiosity.
Asserting that the SJTA can’t determine to open the interior chamber of the ‘Ratna Bhandar’, temple administrator (improvement) Ajay Kumar Jena mentioned the difficulty shall be positioned earlier than the Sri Jagannath Temple Managing Committee in its subsequent assembly.
“The SJTA will inform the managing committee’s decision to the government and then only the treasury can be opened,” he mentioned.
It appeared that water seeps by cracks within the wall of the shop, temple’s ‘Ratna Bhandar’ in-charge and servitor Niranjan Mekap mentioned, including that the treasury “must be opened immediately and repaired”.
Leader of Opposition within the state meeting Jaynarayan Mishra alleged that the state authorities has “by no means made any try to open the interior chamber of the treasury despite the fact that it has gold, diamond jewelry, valuable stones and different ornaments.
It remained closed for 44 years even because the Sri Jagannath Temple Act, 1955 has a provision of enterprise inspection of the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ each three years, the BJP chief mentioned. The ruling BJD leaders stay tight-lipped over the difficulty.
Law Minister Jagannath Saraka had instructed the Assembly on July 16 that if any proposal is obtained to open the ‘Ratna Bhandar’, the state authorities will take crucial steps after inspecting completely different facets.
Congress and BJP legislators within the House had demanded an “immediate inventory of items stored in the treasury.”
Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, the titular king of Puri, who can also be the chairman of the Temple Managing Committee, has sought to open the treasury to clear doubts of devotees over the presence of property.
The Archaeological Survey of India, which takes care of the upkeep of Odisha’s hottest non secular website, had not too long ago urged the state authorities to open the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ for the bodily inspection of the construction.
“The Ratna Bhandar is located in the basement of the temple, which should be inspected physically. The walls of the treasury may be damaged due to climate impact on the structure. It must be repaired immediately,” a senior ASI official mentioned.
The temple has at the very least two chambers of its treasury. The ‘Bahar Bhandar’ (outer chamber) shops ornaments utilized by the deities each day, whereas many items of jewelry are stored within the interior chamber of the treasury, in accordance with temple sources.
An try was made to open the interior chamber of ‘Ratna Bhandar’ in April 2018 following a directive of the Orissa High Court, nevertheless it was not profitable as keys weren’t discovered at the moment.
A crew, comprising ASI officers, monks and others, then carried out an inspection from outdoors.
In the wake of a statewide hue and cry, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had constituted a judicial fee headed by retired Justice Raghubir Das to probe into the lacking key situation.
“Though the commission has submitted its report to the state government, we are unable to understand why the findings of the panel were not tabled in the assembly so far,” senior Congress legislator Santosh Singh Saluja mentioned.
The fee had in November 2018 submitted its 324-page report back to the Odisha authorities. The opposition MLA mentioned the “missing of the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ keys, and not revealing the judicial panel report by the government becomes a mystique”.
Former temple administrator Rabindra Narayan Mishra, who was a part of the crew that inspected the interior chamber of the treasury in 1978, mentioned, “The Ratna Bhandar is divided into two parts. While the outer chamber stores the ornaments and valuables for regular use of the deities, most precious jewellery items are kept in the inner chamber. I had seen huge quantities of gold, diamond and ornaments wrapped in clothes and kept in wooden boxes.”
Earlier, the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ was opened in 1803 and 1926, Mishra mentioned.
All the valuable objects have been listed and weighed correctly over the past inspection, he mentioned, including that the valuation of the asset couldn’t be ascertained as goldsmiths from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat weren’t capable of calculate the precise worth of the ornaments at the moment.
“I think it is high time to do an inventory of the ornaments stored in the Ratna Bhandar and allow the ASI to inspect the physical structure of the temple,” he mentioned.
In 2021, then regulation minister Pratap Jena knowledgeable the House that in accordance with 1978 stock, the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ had 12,831 ‘bhari’ of gold and 22,153 ‘bhari’ of silver (one bhari is the same as 11.66 grams).
The treasury additionally had 12,831 gram of gold ornaments with valuable stones and different valuables in retailer, he had mentioned.
As a lot as 22,153 gram of silver with costly stones, silver utensils and different valuables had been discovered there, Jena talked about, including that attributable to varied causes, 14 gold and silver objects couldn’t be weighed throughout the stock course of.
BHUBANESHWAR: The thriller over Lord Jagannath’s ‘Ratna Bhandar’ has deepened because the Odisha authorities has “no plan” to reopen the interior chamber of the treasury of the Twelfth-century shrine in Puri and refused to share details about the temple’s asset to an RTI activist, devotees claimed on Monday.
Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) below the state regulation division, didn’t reply to the queries of Bolangir-based RTI activist Hemant Panda.
The State Information Commission has not too long ago imposed a advantageous on the SJTA’s officer S Ok Chatterjee for not sharing data within the public curiosity.
Asserting that the SJTA can’t determine to open the interior chamber of the ‘Ratna Bhandar’, temple administrator (improvement) Ajay Kumar Jena mentioned the difficulty shall be positioned earlier than the Sri Jagannath Temple Managing Committee in its subsequent assembly.
“The SJTA will inform the managing committee’s decision to the government and then only the treasury can be opened,” he mentioned.
It appeared that water seeps by cracks within the wall of the shop, temple’s ‘Ratna Bhandar’ in-charge and servitor Niranjan Mekap mentioned, including that the treasury “must be opened immediately and repaired”.
Leader of Opposition within the state meeting Jaynarayan Mishra alleged that the state authorities has “by no means made any try to open the interior chamber of the treasury despite the fact that it has gold, diamond jewelry, valuable stones and different ornaments.
It remained closed for 44 years even because the Sri Jagannath Temple Act, 1955 has a provision of enterprise inspection of the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ each three years, the BJP chief mentioned. The ruling BJD leaders stay tight-lipped over the difficulty.
Law Minister Jagannath Saraka had instructed the Assembly on July 16 that if any proposal is obtained to open the ‘Ratna Bhandar’, the state authorities will take crucial steps after inspecting completely different facets.
Congress and BJP legislators within the House had demanded an “immediate inventory of items stored in the treasury.”
Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, the titular king of Puri, who can also be the chairman of the Temple Managing Committee, has sought to open the treasury to clear doubts of devotees over the presence of property.
The Archaeological Survey of India, which takes care of the upkeep of Odisha’s hottest non secular website, had not too long ago urged the state authorities to open the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ for the bodily inspection of the construction.
“The Ratna Bhandar is located in the basement of the temple, which should be inspected physically. The walls of the treasury may be damaged due to climate impact on the structure. It must be repaired immediately,” a senior ASI official mentioned.
The temple has at the very least two chambers of its treasury. The ‘Bahar Bhandar’ (outer chamber) shops ornaments utilized by the deities each day, whereas many items of jewelry are stored within the interior chamber of the treasury, in accordance with temple sources.
An try was made to open the interior chamber of ‘Ratna Bhandar’ in April 2018 following a directive of the Orissa High Court, nevertheless it was not profitable as keys weren’t discovered at the moment.
A crew, comprising ASI officers, monks and others, then carried out an inspection from outdoors.
In the wake of a statewide hue and cry, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had constituted a judicial fee headed by retired Justice Raghubir Das to probe into the lacking key situation.
“Though the commission has submitted its report to the state government, we are unable to understand why the findings of the panel were not tabled in the assembly so far,” senior Congress legislator Santosh Singh Saluja mentioned.
The fee had in November 2018 submitted its 324-page report back to the Odisha authorities. The opposition MLA mentioned the “missing of the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ keys, and not revealing the judicial panel report by the government becomes a mystique”.
Former temple administrator Rabindra Narayan Mishra, who was a part of the crew that inspected the interior chamber of the treasury in 1978, mentioned, “The Ratna Bhandar is divided into two parts. While the outer chamber stores the ornaments and valuables for regular use of the deities, most precious jewellery items are kept in the inner chamber. I had seen huge quantities of gold, diamond and ornaments wrapped in clothes and kept in wooden boxes.”
Earlier, the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ was opened in 1803 and 1926, Mishra mentioned.
All the valuable objects have been listed and weighed correctly over the past inspection, he mentioned, including that the valuation of the asset couldn’t be ascertained as goldsmiths from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat weren’t capable of calculate the precise worth of the ornaments at the moment.
“I think it is high time to do an inventory of the ornaments stored in the Ratna Bhandar and allow the ASI to inspect the physical structure of the temple,” he mentioned.
In 2021, then regulation minister Pratap Jena knowledgeable the House that in accordance with 1978 stock, the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ had 12,831 ‘bhari’ of gold and 22,153 ‘bhari’ of silver (one bhari is the same as 11.66 grams).
The treasury additionally had 12,831 gram of gold ornaments with valuable stones and different valuables in retailer, he had mentioned.
As a lot as 22,153 gram of silver with costly stones, silver utensils and different valuables had been discovered there, Jena talked about, including that attributable to varied causes, 14 gold and silver objects couldn’t be weighed throughout the stock course of.
