Ayodhya Temple should be built on lines of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat: Swami Swaroopanand

The Shankaracharya while welcoming the Supreme Court’s five-judge unanimous verdict on Ayodhya, had objected to the direction to give five acres land to Muslims for building the mosque.

Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. (Photo | @AbhilM, Twitter)

BHOPAL: The Shankaracharya of Jyotish and Sharda Dwarka Peeth, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati said on Wednesday that the Ram Temple in Ayodhya should be built on the lines of world-famous Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia.

“The grand temple was built in the 11th century there and the same temple is one of the most frequented religious places in the world. When the path is now clear for building the temple in Ayodhya, then the grand temple in Ayodhya should be on the lines of the grand temple in Cambodia,” the Hindu seer told journalists at his Ashram in Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh.

While showing the picture of Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia, the Ram temple will not be built again and again in Ayodhya. “Since it will be built only once, it should be built by competent and deserving people and must be grand and large just like the world-famous temple of Cambodia.”

The Angkor Vat Temple complex in Cambodia is the largest religious monument in the world, on a site measuring 162.6 hectares.

Originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire, it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the 12th century.

The Shankaracharya, who on Saturday, while welcoming the Supreme Court’s five-judge unanimous verdict on Ayodhya, had objected to the direction to give five acres land to Muslims for building the mosque, recounted on Wednesday the developments in Ayodhya during the erstwhile central government headed by Narsimha Rao.

“The Narsimha Rao government had acquired 67 acres land in Ayodhya and then PM Narsimha Rao had said that the acquired land will be returned to a new trust only. He had also said that if Dharmacharyas (seers) demanded then the land will be given to them for constructing the temple.

We subsequently organized religious conclaves across the country and formed the Ramanuj Trust. So there is no need to constitute any new trust, but the central government should hand over the 67 acres land to Ramanuj Trust, which will build the Ram Temple in Ayodhya,” the Shankaracharya said.