NEW DELHI: The buzz around the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has sent waves across India’s borders too. Nepal is in the process of sending two large rocks from the banks of the Gandaki river to Ayodhya to be used in making idols of Ram and Sita.
Former deputy prime minister of Nepal, Bimalendra Nidhi said that the exchange of Himalayan stones will strengthen religious ties between Nepal and India. It was his idea that the people of Janakpur also gift a metallic shiv dhanush to be displayed in the temple.
Legend has it that Sita was the daughter of King Janak from Nepal. Every year, Janakpur not just celebrates the birth of Lord Ram, and the wedding anniversary of Ram and Sita. “We have a bond with Ayodhya that goes back centuries.
It is for the same reason that we put a proposal of sending these shilas and also a bow, which we will make subsequently. The two shilas weigh about 18 tonnes and 12 tonnes each. We have done a shilapujan of these stones and will be bringing them to Ayodhya on February 1,” Nidhi told this newspaper. Nidhi, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress, has been in touch with the authorities in India for over two years now to take this initiative forward.
In 2020, during the wedding anniversary celebrations of Ram and Sita in Janakpur, the then Indian ambassador (Manjeev Puri) was also invited. That’s when we first spoke about strengthening the cultural ties between the two nations and proposed sending the shiv dhanush that was symbolic of the wedding. Subsequently we proposed sending the rocks to the Ram temple,” he said.
Nidhi said he met the head mahant of Ram Janmabhoomi trust, Champat Rai, and Nripendra Misra, who heads the nirvan samiti of the temple trust, last year. “In December 2022, we got clearance from Nepal government to send the two shilas and a bow to India.
On January 15, we did the shilapujan. These two shilas will first be sent to Janakpur for public viewing. We expect them to reach Ayodhya on February 1,” Nidhi said, revealing that they will make an ashtadhatu (eight-metal) bow for the temple in Ayodhya that would last at least a 1,000 years.