The 11-member committee entered the inner room of the gem after breaking the lock without getting the key. But when they opened the door, they were greeted by a flock of bats! Snake experts were also called before entering the dark room. The doors of the Jagannath Temple jewels in Puri were opened on Sunday at the ‘Holy Moment’ at 1.28 p.m.
From then on until 5:30 p.m., the 11-member committee was inside the Ratnabhandar. In four hours, the caskets filled with ornaments from the outer jewel chamber were sent to a secure ‘vault’ temporarily constructed on the temple premises. But the inner jewel chamber took much longer to open. According to temple sources, the members of the expert committee decided to enter inside by breaking the lock, as one of the locks of the jewel room inside was not opened.
But, as soon as he broke the lock and entered inside, a flock of bats came out from inside. After this, the committee members called in the snake experts present at the temple on behalf of Snake Helpline. After they went inside and declared the jewel room ‘safe’, the 11-member committee entered the inner jewel room. But, in the end, the work on the inner room did not progress much.
Arvind Padhi, the chief administrator of the temple’s administrative authority, came out and said that he had not much time left when entering the inner room. So it was decided to fix another day for that work.
What’s in the jewelry room?
- According to the report of a newspaper called ‘Odisha Review’, King Anangabhim Dev of Odisha gave about 1500 kg of gold to the temple authorities to make Jagannath Dev’s ornaments. That gold should be in the Treasury.
- According to the report, only the outer chamber contains a golden crown of Jagannath and three golden Haridakanthi garlands. Each one is made of 120 tolas, i.e., 1400 grams (about one and a half kg) of gold.
- The gold srivhujas, or hands, and sripayas, or feet, of Jagannathdeva and Balabhadra are also in the treasury.
- There are 74 gold jewels in the inner gem chamber. Each weighs less than 1 kg.
- Apart from this, there are ‘plates’ made of gold, diamonds, corals, and pearls.
- There are also 140 heavy silver ornaments in the gem room inside the temple.
