BHOPAL: Land of Lord Mahakal and Madhya Pradesh’s holy city Ujjain created a new world record of largest display of oil lamps by successfully lighting over 18.82 lakh diyas at the sacred Kshipra riverfront on Mahashivratri (Thursday) evening.
“It’s official now, this is a new record. Ujjain has successfully lit 18.82 lakh-plus diyas and also ensured that these diyas continued to twinkle for at least five minutes on the entire Ghats dotting the Kshipra river here. By this successful attempt, Ujjain has surpassed the previous record of Ayodhya, which had lit 15.76 lakh-plus diyas in October 2022,” Guinness World Record Team’s adjudicator Swapnil Dangarikar announced from the stage of the Shiv Jyoti Arpanam in Ujjain.
Quoting the actual figures, the MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan congratulated Ujjain for lighting-up 18,82,229 diyas to render an unparalleled divine experience, ushered with unbelievable public participation.
Importantly, Ujjain has set the world record of the largest display of oil lamps, not once, but twice within a year. Earlier, on March 1, 2022 evening (Mahashivratri), Ujjain had surpassed Ayodhya’s 2021 Diwali record of 9.41 lakh diyas, by successfully lighting 11.71 lakh-plus diyas.
However, seven months later, Ayodhya passed Ujjain’s March 1, 2022 mark by lighting-up the entire Saryu riverfront with 15.76 lakh-plus diyas on Chhoti Diwali (October 23, 2022).
Ujjain had originally targeted lighting 21 lakh diyas for the new record, but ultimately succeeded in lighting 18.82 lakh. If total number of diyas were lit elsewhere across Ujjain city, the figure could well have touched or crossed 21 lakhs.