Jagannath Temple treasury audit from March 25; ornaments to be verified after 40 years

THe juggernaut Temple in Puri testament, from wed, escort sir thomas more than a dozen experts, including goldsmiths, gemmologists, temple servitors and committee members, verify its vast trove of gold, diamonds and jewelled ornaments in a court-mandated audit being conducted for the first time in over four decades.The 12th-century temple’s Ratna Bhandar (treasury) will be opened at an auspicious hour (between 12:09 pm and 1:25 pm) on March 25, officials who will supervise the inventorisation exercise said on Saturday. The Orissa High Court has ordered the exercise to be completed within three months.Retired Orissa High Court judge Biswanath Rath, who heads the temple’s inventorisation committee, said the 2026 exercise will cross-check every ornament against the nearly 50-year-old register, establishing—item by item—what survives, what is missing, and what has been added since.Inventory process and digitisationJustice (retd) Rath told HT, “The inventory will cover three distinct categories of treasure. First to be counted are the Chalanti Ratna Bhandar, or the outer, movable treasury, which holds ornaments used in the daily adornment of the Holy Trinity of Lord Jagannath, Goddess Subhadra, and Lord Balabhadra. It has crowns, garlands, earrings, armlets, ankle ornaments, forehead marks, and celestial symbols.”After the outer treasury is fully documented, the audit will proceed to the Bhitara Ratna Bhandar, or the inner chamber, which holds the temple’s original and most ancient valuables. The inner chamber had not been entered by the servitors who compiled the 1978 list.“We hope to complete the inventory and valuation of ornaments earlier kept in Inner Ratna Bhandar in a disciplined manner,” he said.Rath said a six-member supervising committee, including noted sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, will oversee operations and ensure procedural compliance, while a handling committee comprising 12 categories of members—including representatives from recognised commercial banks and the Reserve Bank of India, along with temple servitors, administrative officials and temple goldsmiths—will assist in identifying and authenticating ornaments.“The treasury will be opened and sealed each day only in the presence of a magistrate, with keys brought from a separate secure location. Each ornament will be assigned a unique serial number. Its name, material (gold, diamond, pearl, ruby, silver, or other) and physical description will be logged in both paper registers and digital systems. Crucially, every item will also be digitised using three-dimensional mapping technology, creating a permanent visual and spatial record. At the close of each working day, a summary sheet will be prepared and signed by each of the members of both committees,” he said.Justice (retd) Rath said packaging will be colour-coded by material. “While gold ornaments would be wrapped in yellow velvet and placed in sealed tin boxes, silver items would be sheathed in white or silver velvet, while other valuables in red. All packets will then be secured in numbered steel boxes, cross-referenced to both the old 1978 register and the new inventory. Special precision weighing machines, capable of measuring from milligrams to 15 kilograms, have been procured for the exercise,” he said.Past audits and renewed pushThe last audit of the valuables kept in the Ratna Bhandar, located on the northern side of the Jagamohan of the temple, was carried out over 70 days between May 13, 1978, and July 23, 1978. During the audit-cum-inventorisation, 454 gold articles, including crowns, necklaces, bracelets and anklets, with a net weight of 128.38 kg, and 293 silver articles weighing 221.53 kg were counted by officials. Additionally, 14 items of gold and silver could not be weighed at the time and were not included in the 1978 list. The 1978 audit, conducted by jewellers, has not been made public.Since then, successive committees have urged a detailed verification of the ornaments, but the exercise has been repeatedly postponed, citing administrative and ritual challenges. In April 2018, an attempt to open the inner chamber failed after keys were reported “missing,” sparking widespread controversy and political uproar.The Ratna Bhandar’s contents have long been the subject of speculation, legal petitions and political controversy in Odisha. The temple receives millions of pilgrims annually, and its treasury—accumulated over centuries of royal patronage and devotee donations—is widely believed to be among the most valuable religious repositories in the world, though no authoritative modern valuation exists.Transparency and visitor restrictionsSri Jagannath Temple Administration chief administrator Arabinda Padhee said the entire process will be conducted with “complete transparency and accountability,” with videography running throughout every session. The format of recording, he said, has been designed so that the public can understand precisely how the work is being carried out.Justice (retd) Rath said that although devotees will be allowed to enter the temple during the inventorisation, certain restrictions will be in place. “No devotee would be allowed close to the sanctum sanctorum as the inventorisation committee members would be working in that area,” he said, adding that the audit will not run on a conventional daily schedule. “Work sessions would last four to five hours each day, but the process will not be conducted on Saturdays or Sundays, when devotee crowds are heaviest, nor on festival days or during special rituals.”