Countdown Begins For Opening Of Jagannath Temple Ratna Bhandara

Puri: Millions of devotees across the world are waiting with bated breath to know about the details of the Ratna Bhandara of Shri Jagannath temple which would be opened at 2 PM on Wednesday for inspection.

In the meanwhile, the Shri Jagannath Temple Administration in consultation with the Srimandir Managing Committee and the Chhatisha Nijog has revised the team that would go inside the Ratna Bhandara.

As against the 10-member team which was finalised earlier, seven more members have been added to the team.

The 17-member team includes Tadhau Karana (servitor) Himanshu Patnaik, Deula Karana (servitor) Chandrasekhar Mangaraj; Bhandara Mekap (temple treasurer) Ganesh Mekap; Mahanayaka of Chhatisha Nijog (president of the confederation of several servitors’ bodies) Janardana Pattajoshi; Puri Gajapati Maharaja’s representative Amiya Mohanty; amicus curiae appointed by the Orissa High Court NK Mohanty; Puri Collector Arvind Agarwal and SP Sarthak Sarangi; three engineers of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Hemsagar Abhaya Nayak, Tapan Kumar Bhattacharya and Chitta Ranjan Das; two member of the ASI Core Committee, GC Mitra and NC Pal; two members of the Ratna Bhandara Sub-Committee Rama Chandra Dasmohapatra and Ananta Tiadi; chief administrator of SJTA Pradip Kumar Jena and Niti Prasasak of the temple Pradip Dash.

The team will inspect the roof and wall of the Ratna Bhandara with the help of the LED lights and not touch any other object inside it. As per the Records of Rights (Satwalipi) of the temple, each member would be thoroughly searched before and after the inspection of the Ratna Bhandara. Each member would be searched twice by the police and once by the Bhandara Mekap. The search and the frisking of each member would be videographed. The members will not be allowed to carrying any object other than the spectacles used by them.

The members, before entering into the Ratna Bhandara, will perform worship of Lord Loknath (Lord Siva) and take a pledge that whatever they witness inside the Ratna Bhandara would not disclose outside.

The Ratna Bhandara would be locked after the members complete the inspection work. After the Bhitara (inner) Bhandara is locked, the key would be handed over to the Puri District Treasury Office which will keep it under its custody. Later, other chambers of the Ratna Bhandara would be locked in the presence of the Puri Gajapati King and the SJTA officials.

As per the procedures finalized by the SJTA, there will be no temple repair work and other rituals after the Madhyanna Dhupa.

The temple would remain closed for the devotees an hour before the opening of the Ratna Bhandara. The Ratna Bhandara would be opened after the servitors sanitise the entire temple premises.

Two platoons of armed police force would be deployed at the four entrance gates of the temple which will be closed during the inspection. Besides, inside the temple premises, two platoons of armed police force would guard the four sides of the main temple.

The Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA) and Fire Brigade personnel would also remain inside the temple premises in case of any emergency while two members of the Snake Helpline would also remain present inside the temple.

The president and secretary of the Chhatisha Nijog would witness the opening and closing of the Ratna Bhandara from the Mukti Mandap adjacent to the main temple.