Puri Jagannath Temple's Ratna Bhandar had 120 kilograms gold, 221 kilograms silver 40 years back

BHUBANESWAR: The Ratna Bhandar (storehouse of jewelleries, ornaments and other valuables) of Sri Jagannath Temple at Puri had more than 120 kilograms of gold and 221 kilograms of silver 40 years back when an inventory of the valuables within the storehouse was made.

Law minister Pratap Jena informed this in the assembly today in a written reply to a question from Dilip Ray.

According to the inventory prepared in 1978 when the Ratna Bhandar was opened last time, it had more than 12831 'bhari' of gold and 22,153 'bhari' of silver (One bhari equals 11.66 grams).

However, the government does not have any information about the value of the items in the bhandar.

The minister said that a complete inventory of valuables inside the Ratna Bhandar was prepared by the temple administration between May 13 and 23, 1978. The storehouse had 12,831 bharis of gold ornaments with expensive stones and other valuables of the metal. Similarly, 22153 bharis of silver with expensive stones, silver utensils and other valuables were found.

However, 14 gold and silver items could not be weighed during the inventory making process for different reasons. But during the process, value of the items were not assessed. The minister said that as the state government does not have any information about the gold and silver ornaments and other valuables kept inside the Ratna Bhandar from 1978 to 2018 from donations and pranamis offered by the devotees, the value of items inside the storehouse is likely to have gone up.