File picture of Bhutan Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigme Y Thinley (right) taking a look at the Buddha relic at the State Museum in Bhubaneswar during his recent visit

Cuttack, Sept. 14: The controversy over shifting of the rare Buddha relic lying in the strongroom of Archaeological Survey of India’s Bhubaneswar office for the past 27 years has taken a new turn with Orissa High Court imposing a restriction on it.

After constant requests for years, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had last month agreed to hand over the Buddha relic to the Odisha government for display at the state museum.

The relic, believed to be a tooth of Lord Buddha, has been in the possession of the ASI since it was found during an excavation at Lalitgiri, a famous Buddhist site near Jajpur, in 1985. The relic was found inside a small gold casket encased in multiple caskets of silver, steatite and Khondolite.

Residents of Lalitgiri have been demanding installation of the rare Buddha relic at the site of excavation for more than a decade.

Following a proposal from the Odisha government, the ASI had recently agreed to hand over the Buddha relic for display at the state museum till a site museum was constructed at Lalitgiri.

Controversy had sparked off with Jajpur MP Mohan Jena’s opposition to the Odisha culture department’s move to shift the sacred relic from the ASI strongroom to the state museum last month.

The issue reached the high court with the filing of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the ASI to take steps to preserve and display the Buddha relic at the protected Lalitgiri Buddhist site.

Buddhayana, a local Buddhist organisation, filed the PIL.

Acting on the petition, the division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice S.K. Mishra issued notices to the ASI and the Odisha culture department in which the court imposed interim restrictions on shifting of the Buddha relic from the Bhubaneswar strongroom.

“The Buddha relic shall not be shifted without the permission of the court,” the interim order said.

Debendra Kumar Sahu, the secretary of Buddhayan, contended in his petition that in other parts of the country Buddha relics have been displayed at the sites where they were unearthed by the ASI. But, the same had not been done in the case of Buddha relics discovered at Lalitgiri in 1985. Instead, the ASI had decided to allow display of the relic at the Odisha government’s museum in Bhubaneswar, the PIL alleged.

Another relic, believed to be that of Lord Buddha, is on display at Bodhgaya.

The petition said consecutive sessions of excavations by the ASI in the 1980s had brought to light a huge stupa at Lalitgiri hill. Several stone images of Buddha and others, including Buddha Vihars, were unearthed.

But, a magnificent discovery at Lalitgiri was the gold casket containing tiny bones, believed to be relics of Lord Buddha in 1985. The relics were found kept in four independent caskets one inside the other.

Though the casket was discovered from among the ruins of a stupa on the Lalitgiri hill, it was shifted to the ASI office in Bhubaneswar and has since been lying in the strongroom of the office.