Ram Mandir consecration: 15 couples from across India to be ‘yajmans’ for pran pratishtha

RSS leader Anil Mishra and his wife Usha are ‘pradhan yajman’

Anil Mishra and his wife performing rituals at Ram temple. (Man in yellow cap and yellow shawl is Anil Mishra. Woman sitting on ground behind him is his wife)

A total of 15 couples from different castes and sections from across the country will perform the duty of “yajmans” (hosts) during the “pran pratishtha” of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on Monday. The couples will include Dalits, tribals, OBCs (including Yadav) and other castes.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on Saturday shared a list of 14 names, saying that another name will be announced later. As yajman, these couples will perform rituals during the Ram temple consecration ceremony in the presence of other dignitaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, trust president Nrtiya Gopal Das, UP Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The list of 14 names includes Ramchandra Kharadi, president of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an affiliate of RSS. Kharadi, who comes from a tribal community, belongs to Udaipur. Three yajman are from Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of PM Narendra Modi. They include Anil Chaudhary, dom raja of Kashi. Doms have been responsible for lighting pyres for generations at Manikarnika and Harishachandra Ghats in Varanasi. They also claim themselves to be the “inheritor of the legacy of mythological king Kaaloo Dom”. Kailash Yadav and Kaveendra Pratap Singh are the other two names from Varanasi.

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Other names on the list are Ram Kui Jemi of Assam, Sardar Guru Charan Singh Gill (Jaipur), Krishna Mohan (Hardoi, from Ravidasi samaj), Ramesh Jain (Multani), Adalarasan (Tamil Nadu), Vitthalrao Kamble (Mumbai), Mahadev Rao Gaikwad (Latur, Ghumantu samaj trustee), Lingraj Vasavaraj Appa (Kalaburagi in Karnataka), Dilip Valmiki (Lucknow), and Arun Chaudhary (Palwal in Haryana).

RSS leader Anil Mishra, member of the organisation’s Awadh wing, and wife Usha are the “pradhan yajman” (main hosts) who will perform the rituals leading up to the consecration event. Mishra is one of the 15 trustees of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra that was formed in 2020 to oversee the construction.

Lalmani Verma

Lalmani is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, and is based in New Delhi. He covers politics of the Hindi Heartland, tracking BJP, Samajwadi Party, BSP, RLD and other parties based in UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand. Covered the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, 2019 and 2024; Assembly polls of 2012, 2017 and 2022 in UP along with government affairs in UP and Uttarakhand. ... Read More

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