The ‘Ratna Bandar’, the treasure chamber of the famous Puri Jagannath temple in Odisha, was opened today after 46 years. In this case, important details about the gold, diamond jewelry and silver items inside that room have been revealed.
Assembly elections recently concluded in Odisha. BJP won this election and took over the government. This ended the 24-year rule of Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal. After this, BJP’s Mohan Charan Maji has taken office as the new Chief Minister.
The state has the world famous Puri Jagannath Temple. This 12th century temple houses a treasure room called “Ratna Bandar”. In this room the valuable ornaments given by the kings who ruled are preserved.
In this case, this temple issue became a major talking point in the Odisha elections. In other words, Naveen Patnaik’s political successor was former IAS officer VK Pandian from Tamil Nadu. This was criticized by the BJP. BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, criticized that if the Biju Janata Dal wins again, the keys to the Odisha Puri Jagannath temple treasure room will go to Tamils. This is a big talking point.
Similarly, Prime Minister Modi said in the election campaign that if the BJP comes to power in Odisha, the treasure room of Puri Jagannath temple will be opened and the jewels will be checked and its details will be digitized. Accordingly, the ‘Ratna Bandar’, the treasure room of the Puri Jagannath Temple, was opened today as the BJP won the Odisha assembly elections. Earlier this room was opened in 1978 and now this room is open after 46 years.
For this, a committee of 11 members was constituted on behalf of the state government. Odisha High Court Judge Biswanath Rath, Jagannath Temple Administrative Chief Executive Arabinda Badi, ASI Superintendent DP Katanaik and a representative of the titular King of Puri ‘Gajapati Maharaja’ are included in this committee. It was in the presence of this group that the treasure room ‘Ratna Bandar’ was opened today.
After that, the boxes containing the jewels and ornaments were taken out from the treasure room under tight security. In this case, important information about the gold, diamond jewelry and silver items in that treasure room has been revealed. In other words, news about this has been published in Odisha state newspapers. It says:
Anangabeema Dev, the king of Odisha, donated 2.5 lakh madhas of gold to the temple for jewellery. It is kept in this room. There are total 2 rooms here. Bidar Bandar is the internal treasury room. Bahar is an external treasury. It contains three gold necklaces weighing 120 tolas (120 tolas, one tola equals 11.34 grams) each in the outer treasury room.
There are 74 gold ornaments in the inner treasury room. Each weighs more than 100 tolas each. It features gold, diamond, coral and pearl decorated plates and jewellery. More than 140 pieces of silver jewelry are also kept there.
According to this, there is 128 kg of gold in the treasure room; It is said to contain 221 kg of silver. Also in 1978 this room was opened and the jewels were checked. It is said that it took 70 days to complete the counting and evaluation of the jewels. In this case, the BJP government of the state has planned to quickly evaluate the jewelry and create a digital list of the jewelry for future reference. It is also worth noting that the entire jewelry evaluation work is going to be video recorded.
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