Do poisonous cobras protect the Ratna Bhandar of Puri temple? The treasure will be opened in the presence of snake catchers and medical team

Ratna Bhandar is to be opened on 14th July.

Jagannath Temple Gemstone Store , Preparations are underway to open the Ratna Bhandar of Puri’s Jagannath Temple. After 46 years, the lock of the Ratna Bhandar room is to be opened on July 14, but the officials of the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) feel that there may be snakes in and around the Ratna Bhandar. In such a situation, the SJTA has taken precautionary measures. A snake catcher and a medical team will be present there while opening the Ratna Bhandar and making a list of the ornaments.

Snake catcher, medical team during opening of Ratna Bhandar

According to the Times of India report, an SJTA official said, “We have sent a draft SOP related to opening of Ratna Bhandar to the government for approval. We have demanded to keep a snake catcher and a team of doctors at the time of opening of Ratna Bhandar.” There is a popular belief that poisonous cobras protect this Ratna Bhandar. A sevadar, who was part of the 16-member committee demanding opening of Ratna Bhandar, said that there is curiosity to know which ornaments are there in Ratna Bhandar, but we are scared of the possibility of snakes being there.

Cracks and holes in the walls of the temple complex

According to the report, another sevadar Harekrishna Mahapatra said that recently when beautification work was going on under the Jagannath Heritage Corridor Project, snakes were seen in the temple premises. Mahapatra said that since this is an ancient temple, there are cracks and holes in the walls of the premises. It is possible that snakes may have reached the Ratna Bhandar through these holes. Therefore, precautionary measures should be taken while opening the Ratna Bhandar. An expert snake catcher is being searched to deal with the problem of the presence of snakes while opening the Ratna Bhandar.

Ornaments of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra

It is said that there is a Ratna Bhandar in two locks of a room of the Jagannath temple. These contain ornaments of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra. The rooms containing Ratna Bhandar were last opened in 1978. The then Law Minister Pratap Jena had said that there are 12 thousand 831 heavy gold ornaments studded with gems and precious stones and 22 thousand 153 silver utensils and other materials in the Ratna Bhandar. The Ratna Bhandar was last opened between May 13 and July 23 in 1978.

The special thing is that the room was opened on 14th July 1985 but this time no information was given about the Ratna Bhandar. There is also talk of some jewellery being stolen from the Ratna Bhandar. Overall, the Ratna Bhandar room has been opened only four times so far in 1984, 1978, 1926 and 1905.