Banke Bihari Temple Treasure Opens After 54 Years: What’s Inside Vrindavan’s Temple Toshkhana?

Several precious coins, gold and silver bars and gemstones were found inside a long box in one of the sealed chambers in Mathura’s Banke Bihari temple on Sunday (October 19). For the first time in 54 years, the Supreme Court panel ordered to reopen several treasure rooms (toshkhana) of the temple on Dhanteras, according to a TOI report.The shrine’s priests on Sunday claimed that they have found gold and silver bars, along with other treasures.Temple Priest Dinesh Goswami, who was present during the survey, said, “One gold bar and three silver bars were spotted by the team with ‘gulal’ on it. They were recovered from a long box that was found in the toshkhana. The metals were each roughly 3-4 feet in length. In addition, a few gemstones of red and green colour, precious coins and utensils of different metals were found,” according to TOI.Also Read: Why Supreme Court Evoked Lord Krishna In Dispute Between Banke Bihari Temple And UP GovernmentTreasure rooms of Banke Bihari templeThe treasure rooms were locked since 1971 and the high-powered panel took the decision to reopen them last month. Mathura DSP Mathura Sadar, Sandeep Singh said that the entire exercise was “videographed” and committee members and the policewere also present during the process. ADM (finance and revenue) Pankaj Kumar Verma, meanwhile, said, ” We’ve noted down the finds in our records as ‘peeli dhaatu’ (yellow metal) and ‘safed dhaatu’ (white metal), and we’ll present all the recoveries before the panel, TOI reported. The committee is expected to meet on October 29 to assess and decide on what to do with the finds and how and where to preserve them, Verma added. They will also discuss measures on how to preserve the underground rooms and its doors will be decided in that meeting.