Special boxes were brought to Shri Jagannath Temple in Odisha ahead of Ratna Bhandar's reopening at 1:28 PM on Sunday, July 14. The state government has issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) following this. An 11-member team entered Puri Srimandir before Ratna Bhandar's opening.
Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Chief Arabinda Padhee said the government had approved the SOP for opening the Ratna Bhandar as per the authority's guidelines.
A live streaming view will be held online to witness one of the significant auspicious events for devotees who won't be able to attend the Ratna Bhandar opening. You can also witness the special Ratna Bhandar boxes opening of Jagannath Temple on television and YouTube channels.
Watch Free Live Streaming of Ratna Bhandar
"Odisha government has approved the SOP for opening the Ratna Bhandar. As per the decision, the Ratna Bhandar is being opened today per set guidelines. Authorised representatives from the various 'sewa' groups, officials from the ASI, representatives of Shri Gajapati Maharaj, and others will be there. The entire proceedings will be video recorded for our records, not for publicity, and will be strictly confidential. There are three steps of the SOP- The first is the opening of the outer ratna bhandar. For the inner ratna bhandar, there is another set of guidelines. WRatna Bhandar has also made a temporary strong room... Once the shift from ratna bhandar to the strong room has been made, we will inventorise the valuables... We seek the blessings of Mahaprabhu that the Ratna Bhandar gets opened easily, and the subsequent steps will follow," said SJTA Padhee.
Sand artist and member of the Ratna Bhandar inspection committee, Sudarshan Patnaik, said, "After the High Court order, ASI wrote a letter to the temple management committee to hand it over as soon as possible because it is very important to repair it, so I wrote a letter to our chairman of the Jagannath Temple Committee in this regard...The government has given importance to the repair part and has prepared the entire SOP, and today, the Ratna Bhandar will open..."
The 12th-century treasury, which was kept reserved for 46 years, will be opened today. It was last opened in 1987. "The Ratna Bhandar of the Jagannath temple will be opened today at 1.28 pm," said Justice Biswanath Rath, the chairman of the committee.
"We have made relevant security arrangements keeping all aspects in mind... QRT has been deployed at all important places. In addition, we have placed a contingency arrangement and all plans are in place... The daily rituals being held in the temple will be held as usual... Only identified servitors who have their duty today will be allowed inside the temple," said Puri SP Pinak Mishra.