Bhubaneswar: The authorities of Jagannath temple at Odisha’s Puri town will set a digital library to preserve the rare records of the 12th century shrine.

The proposed digital library, christened as Gyana Yagnya Mandap, will come up at the location of old Raghunandan Library in the Holy Town. The state government will also set up a research centre at the library, said Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan.  

“Rare records and sacred documents of Jagannath temple including Madala Panjhi and rituals of the presiding deities, and palm-leaf manuscripts among other things will be preserved at the digital library,” added the Law Minister.

Devotees as well as researchers can visit the digital library and access the preserved temple records, said Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief Arabinda Padhree.

“This unique initiative seeks to safeguard the timeless heritage of Jagannath temple,” he added.   

It is worth mentioning here that Raghunandan Library had been set up by the authorities of Emar Mutt at Puri in the 1920s. The heritage library, which was functioning on the first floor of the mutt building near Jagannath temple, was a storehouse of rare palm-leaf manuscripts and books in Sanskrit, Odia and Bengali languages.

The mutt along with library had been demolished to facilitate the construction of Jagannath temple heritage corridor a few years ago.

The books and manuscripts of the library had been shifted to another location at Puri.