Ratna Bhandar opened after four long decades

BHUBANESWAR : After a gap of almost four decades, the inner chamber of Shree Jagannath temple’s Ratna Bhandar in Puri was opened this year – an issue that generated a lot of both public curiosity and political face-offs.

While opening of Ratna Bhandar figured top in the agenda of the BJP, it is also one of the first things that the party did after being voted to power in the state. In fact, a day before the government was to hold an important meeting to decide upon the Ratna Bhandar reopening, it dissolved the 12-member committee which was headed by retired Supreme Court judge Arijit Pasayat and constituted a new one headed by Justice Biswanath Rath.

Located on the northern side of the main temple’s Jagamohana, Ratna Bhandar has two chambers – Bahara Bhandar (outer chamber) and Bhitara Bhandar (inner chamber) – containing the jewels of the Holy Trinity.