The organisers claim the appropriate date and time was decided by the high priests in Kashi, who are an authority on the scriptures and astrology.
Pandit Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid, a Jyotish scholar and reputed priest at Sangved Vidyalaya, who is overseeing the pran pratishtha rituals in Ayodhya, gave an astrological reasoning for selecting the muhurt. “Consecration during this muhurt will keep the temple intact till the Sun and the Moon exist,” he claimed.
"The argument, which I delivered in the Ram Mandir case in the Supreme Court in 2019, is due to my love for God Ram. It is due to my faith, devotion, and devotion to God Ram. I did it for Ram (Lalla) only," Parasaran told this newspaper in a very emotional tone from Chennai.
Notably, he presented his case without shoes and stood for extended periods during the proceedings.
The euphoria around the consecration is such that India’s largest company, Reliance Industries, announced a holiday for their offices across the country on January 22 and the capital market will remain shut following the Maharashtra government’s decision to declare Monday as a public holiday.
Echoing the sentiments expressed by DMK’s Lok Sabha floor leader TR Baalu, Udhayanidhi reiterated, “Our treasurer (T R Baalu) has clearly said that spiritualism and politics should not be mixed.”
“RSS-BJP made the January 22 function a completely political Narendra Modi function. It has become an RSS-BJP function but we cannot be a party to a political function. It becomes very difficult for us when the PM of India and the RSS, our principal opponent, have captured a function and turned it into an election function,” Gandhi had said last week.
Dalit farmer Ramdas was delighted over the use of a stone block from his land at Gujjegowdanapura village near Mysuru to carve the idol of Ram Lalla to be consecrated in Ayodhya on January 22. Srinivas, a local quarry contractor, who took up the work to clear the rocks, said many had worked hard to excavate the stone block sent to Ayodhya. However, he regretted that they had not been invited to the inauguration of the temple.
Right from Treta Yuga till now, Karnataka has been strongly associated with Lord Ram and the Ramayana. Be it the Vanaras who helped Ram find Sita, or the black rock and idol of Ram Lalla the entire world is looking at, all have a Karnataka connect, from Anjanadri to Udupi...
10,000 CCTV cameras and drones equipped with artificial intelligence are keeping an eye on the movement of people and police personnel in plain clothes deployed at the venue in Ayodhya.
Several community members gathered at the iconic Times Square in New York to celebrate the historic event. They distributed laddoos to the passersby and even displayed pictures and visuals of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on screens at Times Square.
Pictures of the Ram Mandir were also displayed on the NASDAQ screen.
Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Mandir, constructed in traditional Nagara style
Dimensions: 380 ft (east-west), 250 ft wide, and 161 ft tall
Supported by 392 pillars, featuring 44 doors
Pillars and walls are adorned with intricate sculptures of Hindu deities
Sanctum sanctorum on the ground floor, housing the permanent idol of Lord Ram
The idol of 'Ram Lalla' is carved by Mysuru-based sculptor Arun Yogiraj
The idol is 51 inches tall and weighs 1.5 tonnes
The idol portrays Lord Ram as a five-year-old child standing on a lotus also crafted from the same stone
Main entrance on the eastern side, accessed by ascending 32 stairs through 'Singh Dwar'
Five halls include Nritya Mandap, Rang Mandap, Sabha Mandap, Prathana Mandap, and Kirtan Mandap
Adjacent historic Sita Koop well and restored Shiv temple at Kuber Tila
Temple foundation: 14-metre-thick roller-compacted concrete for an artificial rock appearance
Granite plinth, 21 feet high, safeguards against ground moisture
Infrastructure includes a sewage treatment plant, a water treatment plant, a fire safety water supply, and an independent power station
With a swanky new airport, a redeveloped railway station, two widened roads -- Ram Path and Dharm Path -- which are now showpiece streets, multi-level car parking facilities, e-buses, a dedicated multilingual tourist app, and new luxury hotels on the horizon, Ayodhya has changed and so has its image.
It was the 2019 Supreme Court verdict on the fractious Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue that paved the way for the progress of this pilgrim city which till a few years ago was a sleepy town in Uttar Pradesh.
The airport and the railway station, both equipped with modern facilities, bear a cladding of sandstone with the design drawn from the architectural elements of the newly built Ram temple which uses sandstones sourced from Rajasthan.
"Ayodhya is undergoing a 'nav nirman' (new construction) and infrastructure is changing. We have to give a new identity to Ayodhya at the global level," Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said recently after flagging off a fleet of e-buses for the city.
The widened Ram Path with uniform facades of buildings on both sides, ornamental lamp posts bearing a design representing the traditional 'Ramanadi tilak' and the 40 Surya Stambhs installed along Dharm Path and the Lata Mangeshkar Chowk are new tourist attractions in the city. (PTI)
The consecration ceremony ('Pran Pratishtha') of Ram Lalla at Ayodhya's temple will take place this afternoon in a grand ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the rituals, marking an end to a deeply polarising dispute that has dominated Independent India's politics for over half a century.
Representatives from major spiritual and religious sects, along with prominent personalities from diverse backgrounds, will attend the ceremony. Elaborate seating arrangements have also been made for 8,500 guests—which includes 4,000 saints and 3,000 distinguished attendees—in front of the main temple.
Actors Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, business tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, and sporting icon Sachin Tendulkar are among the prominent people invited to the event.
Lakhs of people are expected to watch the event live on TV and online platforms as the Centre has announced a half-day off on January 22, and many others followed suit.
The ceremony will begin at 12.20 pm and is expected to end by 1 pm, following which PM Modi will address the gathering. The shrine will be opened to the public a day later.
Almost all opposition leaders invited to the ceremony have declined to be in attendance, with the Congress calling it a "BJP-RSS event."
Turned into a national event by the BJP, the temple's inauguration in Ayodhya is anticipated to have a profound impact on Hindu voters.
Critics and political analysts perceive the ceremony as the commencement of Narendra Modi's bid for a third consecutive term, shaping it as a crucial element in his re-election campaign.
The sacred site for Lord Ram now stands on grounds where the Babri Masjid stood for centuries before it was torn down by Hindu extremists who were incited by right-wing outfits including the BJP and VHP, among others.
The demolition in 1992 triggered some of India's worst sectarian violence post-independence, killing around 2,000 people, most of them Muslims.
The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute has since gone on to become a litmus test for India's ostensibly secular political framework and multi-culturalism amid the deeply polarising rise of right-wing nationalism.
On November 8, 2019, India's top court ruled that the entire 2.77 acres of disputed land in Ayodhya be handed over to a trust to be constituted for the construction of the Ram temple at the site, and also directed the government to give the Sunni Waqf Board five acres of land in another location to build a mosque.
Subsequently, on August 5, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi officiated the laying of the foundation stone for the Ram Temple construction.
The invitees who arrived early this morning included RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Anupam Kher, Kailash Kher, Jubin Nautiyal, Prasson Joshi, Manoj Joshi, Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Ravishankar Prasad, and Anil Ambani.
Hema Malini, Kangana Ranaut, Sr Sri Ravishankar, Morari Bapu, Rajnikant, Pavan Kalyan, Madhur Bhandarkar, Subhash Ghai, Shefali Shah and Sonu Nigam arrived in Ayodhya on Sunday.
