The wooden box that had contained the Mahatma’s ashes had been brought from a museum in Cuttack to the archive-cum-museum of the State Bank that captures the genesis and the growth the bank.

The archive still preserves the saving or current accounts and transaction details of historical giants like Dwarkanath Tagore, Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Dadabhai Naoroji, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Rabindranath Tagore, who were among the first clients of the bank.

Also kept intact are original documents of account-holders like Bipin Chandra Pal, Basanti Debi, Nil Ratan Sarkar, R C Dutt, Premnath Shastry, Ashutosh Mookerjee, along with the complaint register in which Potiti Pabun Mitra who had lodged a complaint in 1889 against a European officer for rudeness.

“The Governor had heard about the archive and wanted to have a look. We invited him today. He was quite thrilled to see the collection and kept asking about various artefacts. He told us we could be involved with the silver mint museum that is coming up in the city,” said Jayanta K Sinha, chief general manager, SBI. According to Sinha, Gandhi, who stayed there for an hour, appreciated the bank’s efforts towards preserving the heritage.

“We asked him if he had any knowledge about the bank documents of C Rajagopalachari. The Governor told us he was not aware of their whereabouts. This is the first time the Governor has walked into our archive,” said Abhik Ray, deputy general manager, history, SBI.

The archive also has details of early banking in India since ancient times to the 18th-century European banking services, with exhibits like the Bank of Hindoostan note.