Prasanta Kumar Dash
The Ratna Bhandar, a treasure trove in the 12th-century Jagannath Temple in Odisha’s Puri shrine, holds a significant place in the history of Odisha for its divinic relevance with the presiding Lords and Gods’s cherished rituals.
The hidden treasure, concealed in three cellars, carved out just under the Ratna Mandap of the Puri Shree Jagannath Temple houses the precious ornaments of the sibling deities – Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and Goddess Subhadra – that erstwhile kings have offered over centuries and devotees from all over the world.
The Ratna Bhandar (treasury) of Puri Jagannath Temple is believed as righteous strongroom to preserve enormous quantity of Gold and silver ornaments along with beads of precious gems and jewels from the ancient times, owing to be used in the daily rituals and special festivities of Lord Jagannath and his siblings.
The history of Odisha,also encompasses some glorious episodes of the Kalinga Kings and Monarchs who had reportedly dedicated his thumping victories to the Lords of Srimandir, sacrificing their wealths and bounties, won following terrific wars.
Apart from the ancient scriptures, the Puri Gazetteer and the Madala Panji, the annual routine and almanac of Puri Shree Mandir also bear some factual records regarding the Ratna Bhandar. The two literatures which are worth meaningful in carrying forward the Shri Jagannath Cult and routine rituals of the people’s God, underline the Ratna Bhandar as the safest cellar to house one of the prime assets of Lord Jagannath.
As on records following the inventory conducted, over 41 years ago, the Ratna Bhandar was found intact treasuring a huge mass of the yellow metal, silver with high- carat gemstones.The three cellars, one outer and two interiors, had housed glittering gems that almost illuminated the three underground rooms in utter darkness.
The inventories, classification and qualitization conducted in 1978, had revealed that the Puri Ratna Bhandar had at least 149.460 kg of gold and 184 kg of silver ornaments, gold-crowns with diamond beads, fitted with gemstones of green emerald, pearl, opal, amethyst, peridot etc.
Specifically, the first inner chamber contains 50.600 kg of gold and 134.50 kg of silver ornaments. Similarly, the outer chamber has 95.320 kg of gold and 19.480 kg of silver while the current chamber which is frequently opened up for addressing the daily rituals of the Lords, has stored valuables of 3.480 kg of gold and 30.350 kg of silver.
In early eighties, the Shree Jagannath Temple necessitated some urget repairing works as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)reported some concernable cracks and porous breaks in the temple’s foundation, apart
from its regular maintenance to patch up the outer wear and tears. Meanwhile, the ASI Technical teams invented some deep cracks on the outerwalls of the Ratna Bhandar. Some elderly servitors of the temple associated with the Ratna Bhandar also reported the ASI regarding serious seepage of water into the Ratna Bhandar.Thus, the ASI amid its temple repair works, undertook a laser scanning of the outer portion of the Ratna Bhandar wherein as many as 12 vulnerable points were spotted that needed immediate interventions, in view of safety and security of the Ratna Bhandar and its valuable belongings. However, it was not practically feasible to undertake any sort of repair works without opening the Ratna Bhandar, which was in lock & key for at least 45 years, due to the multimodality approaches involed in managing the shrine.
Later, owing to the suggestions of the Chairman of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Commitee, Gajapati Dibyasingha Dev and some chief functioneries of the servitors’ forums, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration worked out on a proposal to the Odisha government, citing the concern over the Ratna Bhandar and its endangered volume of gems& jewels.
Based on it, the government resolved to schedule a suitable day for opening the Ratna Bhandar to preparing a roadmap to initiate its repair. For primary assessment, a high-power team led by the Chief Administrator of the temple Pradeep Kumar Jena visited the spot at that time. However, the Ratna Bhandar issue was in the news as a 17-member team led by the Chief Administrator of the temple PK Jena returned mysteriously without visiting the inner chamber of the ratna bhandar. They had been there reportedly with a bunch of keys to conduct a check and survey of the ratna bhandar who returned without visiting the inner chamber.The team’s mysterious return from the Ratna Bhandar entrance as the keys of the inner chamber were reported missing.
Following this the Ratna Bhandar issue mounted a heap of political debates for years where nation-wide outcry sounded discordant over its missing keys. To address public sentiment, the state government had appointed a judicial commission, headed by retired Justice Raghubar Das, to probe into the circumstances leading to the disappearance of the keys of the ratna bhandar. Justice Das had submitted his 324-page long enquiry report to the state government on November 30, 2018. However, the contents of the inquiry reports were not made public yet. Meanwhile, a set of duplicate keys of the Ratna Bhandar kept in a brown sealed envelope was found mysteriously from the locker of the district record room on June 13, 2018. So the necessity of visiting the inner chamber of the ratna bhandar to make a fresh inventory of valuables inside the Ratna Bhandar took shape of a public and political demand.
Ever since the Ratna Bhandar key controversy became a political talk in April last year whereas opening and accounting the valuables inside the Ratna Bhandar, became a statutory challenge for the Naveen-led Odisha Governent.
Responding to a series of querries raised in the Odisha Assembly, Law Minister Pratap Jena had said that there was no proposal then to open the Ratha bhandar to check the gems inside it.The gold and silver materials whose inventory was made during the period between May 13, 1978 and July 23, 1978 have been kept safe and intact.
Jena also outlined that the Puri Ratna Bhandar was last opened on July 14, 1985. At that time, 454 pieces of gold and other ornaments with 236 pieces of silver and carved gem stones were found stocked at their places inside the inner Ratna Bhandar. However, as many as 8 gold statues, six silver utensils could not be valued as they could not be quality-tested and weighed for unavoidable stipulations.
Following this, a social outfit filed a petition in the Odisha High Court seeking status of the Ratna Bhandar and the Raghubar Das Commission’s report on the whereabouts of the keys.
The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) said in its affidavit submitted before the Orissa High Court that all the ornaments kept in the treasury are safe and there is no need for the constitution of a high-power committee to supervise the preparation of the inventory of the ornaments and other jewelry of Lord Jagannath kept inside the Ratna Bhandar. Since then the Ratna Bhandar issue has remained unsolved for years, so the quantity and quality check of its belongings underneath the temple is yet to be statutorily allowed.
Recently the newly sworn-in Mohan Majhi-led BJP government is intrinsically elated to head the tough task of opening the Ratna Bhandar within a week or two. A 16-member team led by Jusitice Biswanath Rath, has been constituted under the aegis of Ratna Bhandar Inventory Committe, to perform the task as soon as possible.
The Committe on July 9 laid its proposal before the SJTA which was despatched to the Odisha Government for due approval from the Law Department.Acting on it, Law Minister Prithwiraj Harichandan is looking forward to accord permission to work out on the project from July 14.
If the government sticks to the date, July 14 will be a red letter day in the history of Odisha, when every perception regarding the devine treasury ‘Ratna Bhandar’ will be crystal clear and the people will witness the hefty royal collection of gems and jewels, meant for Lord’s festivity wears, which were supposedly languished in an unmaintained dark and underground trove.
