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MORE THAN a year after the “pran pratishtha” ceremony of Ram Lalla, the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya will see another consecration ceremony next month, The Indian Express has learnt. The event will mark Lord Ram as the King, and it will follow the installation of the Ram Durbar or royal court on the first floor of the temple later this month.
Preparations are underway for the ceremony and those aware of the matter said it will be low-key as compared to the scale of the grand event held on January 22 last year, which was attended by more than 8,000 people, and presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The event will also mark a kind of finale to the temple construction, which started in 2020 after the Supreme Court verdict mandated the setting up of a committee to oversee the construction. The temple construction committee is currently headed by Nripendra Misra, former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.
Misra recently said that the construction of the temple complex will be completed by the end of this month while the remaining work on the “parkota”, or the compound wall, will be completed before the end of this year.
“About 20,000 cubic feet of stone is yet to be laid in the temple. The construction of the temple will be completed by around April 15,” Mishra had told reporters. “All the statues in the temples that are outside or inside the rampart will be here by April 30, and almost all of them will be installed between March 25 and April 15.”
While the 51-inch-tall idol of Ram Lalla – Lord Ram as a toddler at his birthplace — was sculpted by Karnataka artist Arun Yogiraj, the Ram Durbar is being sculpted in Jaipur by a team of 20 craftsmen headed by sculptor Prashant Pandey, in white Makrana marble.
A huge statue of Saint Tulsidas, who authored Ramcharitmanas, the most popular version of Ramayana, is also being installed in the complex.
Approximately 20 acres of land will be beautified to remain in tune with nature. The temple has been constructed in the traditional Nagara style. Its length (east-west) is 380 feet; width is 250 feet and height is 161 feet. It is supported by a total of 392 pillars and 44 doors.
When the pran pratishtha ceremony was held last year, the ground floor which holds the sanctum sanctorum was complete, while completion of the other floors, main spiral and other elements in the complex were pending. According to those in the know, the work is now 90 per cent complete, and the entire complex — including the parkota — will be complete this year.
The International Ramkatha Museum is also coming up in a building around 4 km from the main temple site, which will figure a hologram that brings Lord Ram to life, an immersive journey into the events of the Ramayana, and a section that chronicles the 200-year-long Ram Temple movement. Objects found during archaeological excavations at the site will also be placed for public viewing at the museum.
