From Wednesday onwards, that is, 25th March, the Jagannath Temple, Puri, will see more than a dozen experts, including goldsmiths, temple servitors and committee members, to verify its vast gold, diamonds and jewellery ornaments in a court-mandated audit. This will be conducted for the first time in over four decades. Read on to know more about the audit.
Jagannath Temple Audit To Start On March 25
As per a report by Hindustan Times, 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. The Orissa High Court has ordered the audit to be completed within three months. According to the news portal, Biswanath Rath, a retired Orissa High Court judge who is the head of the temple’s inventoryization committee, informed me that the 2026 exercise will cross-check every jewellery piece against the nearly 50-year-old register, organising everything that is missing, what has been added, and what survives. He added that no devotee could approach the committee members’ work area.
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Biswanath told Hindustan Times that the inventory will cover three distinct categories of treasure. The first to be counted are the Chalanti Ratna Bhandar, the movable treasury that holds ornaments used in the daily adornment of the Lord Jagannath, Goddess Subhadra, and Lord Balabhadra. The jewellery 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 inner chamber, or the Bhitara Ratna Bhandar, that holds the temple’s original and most ancient valuables.
The Last Audit Of Jagannath Puri
The last audit of the valuables is kept in the Ratna Bhandar, which is located on the northern side of the temple. It was carried out over 70 days between May 13, 1978, and July 23, 1978. During the last audit, there were 454 gold articles, including crowns, necklaces, bracelets and anklets, with a net weight of 128.38 kg and 292 silver articles weighing 221.53 kg. Additionally, because 14 items of gold and silver could not be weighed at the time, they were excluded from the 1978 list. The 1978 audit list was not made public.
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