The Odisha government-appointed committee, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Arijit Pasayat, to devise the procedures for cataloguing ornaments in the 12th century Puri Jagannath temple, decided on Saturday to proceed with endoscopic photography of the shrine’s ratna bhandar (treasure trove).

State-of-the-art cameras will be utilised for the endoscopy of the ratna bhandar.

The government-appointed committee is yet to determine the commencement date for the inventory of Lord Jagannath’s ornaments.

There is a consensus to conduct the exercise during the rath yatra when the deities embark on a nine-day journey outside the Puri temple.

On February 29, the Odisha government established a high-level committee chaired by Justice Pasayat to oversee the inventory of ornaments stored in the ratna bhandar of the Jagannath temple in Puri.

The committee convened its inaugural meeting on Saturday in Puri to deliberate on the inventory and the appropriate time to unseal the chamber.

However, the final dates for opening the ratna bhandar remain undecided.

The ratna bhandar consists of primarily two chambers (inner and outer), housing the jewels and ornaments adorning the three deities.

The outer chamber contains ornaments used daily by the deities. The last inventory took place in 1978, with minor verifications in 1982 and 1985. The outer chamber was accessed in 2018.

The committee will also scrutinise records from 1978 when the last inventory
was conducted.