Puri: Devotees visiting Shree Jagannath Temple in Odisha’s Puri town will have restricted darshan starting Monday, May 11, as the inventorisation of jewelleries and valuables inside Ratna Bhandar resumes.
According to an official release from the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), devotees can have darshan of the sibling deities only from “Bahara Katha” from 4 pm until the completion of Sandhya Dhupa rituals in view of security considerations during the sensitive process.
The process will continue for two days.
The administration has assured that arrangements have been made to ensure the uninterrupted performance of the deities’ rituals and smooth darshan for devotees within these constraints.
“Nine days of the work has been completed…inventory work at Ratna Bhandar had to be halted due to Chandan Yatra. Now it has resumed. We are going to begin the 10th day’s work and have 3 hours to take the counting forward from 4 pm today. Inventory of the Bhitara Ratna Bhandar will continue for 5 days.. 4 days of work has been completed, 3rd almirah has been installed…,” chairman of Inspection Committee for the Ratna Bhandar of Shri Jagannath Temple, Justice Biswanath Rath, told the media.
The process, which began on March 25 in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the state government, has so far been carried out for a total of 57 hours and 8 minutes in different phases during which inventory of Chalanti Bhandar and Bahara Bhandar were completed. The exercise is being conducted transparently in the presence of authorised Sevak members, Chairman of the Ratna Bhandara High-Level Committee, an Executive Magistrate, and other officials.
The inventory of Bhitara Bhandar was temporarily suspended due to the sacred rituals of Akshaya Trutiya and the 21-day-long Bahara Chandan Jatra of Mahaprabhu, which commenced on April 20. “During the Bahara Chandan Yatra, counting was not possible as it would have affected the rituals of the deities. The inventory work of the Bhitara Ratna Bhandar will be carried out on May 11 and 12 after ‘Bhaunri’ ritual,” SJTA Chief Administrator Aravinda Padhee had earlier said, adding the process will resume again after a gap of a week or 10 days.
Padhee has appealed for the continued cooperation of all Sevaks, officials, devotees, and the general public. The schedule for subsequent phases of the inventorisation will be announced in due course, it added.
