RAM TEMPLE

A GOLDEN CHAPTER OF INDIAN CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION THAT MARKED THE “ BOOMI PUJAN ” OF RAM TEMPLE

A historic day that was marked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday,05 August ’2020 for the Bhumi Pujan of Ram Temple at Ayodha in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The foundation stone laying ceremony marked the beginning of the construction of Ram Temple after a lengthy legal battle that culminated in favour of the construction of the temple at the disputed site which housed Babri Mosque before it was demolished by kar sevaks in 1992. Just like 15 August 1947 , is commemorated as the day of sacrifice and the will to be free displayed by many generations of Indians during the Independence struggle, the start of the Ram Temple construction on August 5, 2020 was a “symbol of penance, sacrifice and resolve” of many generations that struggled for it for over five centuries. Lord Ram is considered as the thread of India’s unity in diversity and that Mahatma Gandhi had dreamt of a Ram Rajya through the values of Lord Ram. The master architects who are building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya are the Sompura family from Palitana town in Gujarat , who have built numerous grand temples around the country and elsewhere, including the grand Somnath Temple that was opened in 1951, the Akshardham temples, and the Krishna Janmasthan in Mathura. FROM SOMNATH TO AYODHYA, A FAMILY OF TEMPLE BUILDERS The building of the temple is led by Chandrakant Sompura, 77, had started work on the temple to Ram Lalla in Ayodhya 30 years ago, after he first visited the site with then Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Ashok Singhal. Industrialist Ghanshyamdas Birla asked him if he would take up the Ram Mandir project, and introduced him to Singhal. Sompura had worked on several of the Birla temples then. This was the longest time a project commissioned to the Sompuras has taken for the ground-breaking, says the patriarch, whose family has designed around 200 temples in India and abroad. Usually the bhoomi pujan happen within 2-3 years. The Sompura, watched Prime Minister Narendra Modi perform the shilanyas of the temple live, on television because of his age and the coronavirus pandemic. But his son, Ashish, 49, who has made the site plan of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple, was in Ayodhya to work out the details with Larsen & Toubro, the company that has been awarded the contract to build the temple. The art of temple building came to Ashish largely from his father and great grandfather Prabhashankar, who built the Somnath Temple in Prabhas Patan on the Gujarat coast that was inaugurated by the first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, in 1951. Prabhashankar, who was later honoured with the Padma Shri, lost his son, Balwantrai, who was then 51, in an accident while Balwantrai was returning from a renovation project of the Badrinath temple. But for the family, the Somnath temple is the closest to their heart. The Sompuras believe that their ancestors were taught the art of temple building by the divine architect Vishwakarma himself. The Sompuras, who come from Palitana town of Bhavnagar, consider themselves to be ‘residents of the moon’ (Som = moon and pura= city). Their ancestor Ramji built the Jain temple complex on the Shetrunjay hills of Palitana, commissioned to him by a sugar merchant from Bombay who named the main dwar ‘Ram pol’ after him. He did not go to any formal school of architecture, having learnt it from his grandfather and father and the shastras and now his sons and others who joined in the temple project are, however, trained engineers or architects.

THREE DECADES OF WORK, STARTING WITH PENCIL SKETCHES

From the time when Sompura first went inside the garbha griha at the site in Ayodhya, measuring it with his footsteps as he was not allowed to take any instruments, the site was out of bounds — and restrained the architects from drawing up plans for the future temple. Back then, Sompura would make the primary pencil drawing, and the inking would be done by experts, on tracing paper. Just as Sompura himself had assisted his grandfather Prabhashankar when he built the Somnath temple and the Krishna Janmasthan in Mathura, Ashish too, joined his father around 1993. Sompura had drawn up 2-3 plans for the temple, one of which was approved by the VHP, which had then taken up the task of building the temple. A wooden model was made, and at the Kumbh Mela that followed, the model was placed before the assembled sadhus, who gave their approval. Sompura recalls that before the Babri Masjid was razed, then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had called him to ask if he would make an alternative plan for the temple to Lord Ram while keeping the mosque. An “Ayodhya Cell” had been set up in the Prime Minister’s Office at the time, according to Rao’s autobiography, ‘Ayodhya, 6 December, 1992’. Sompura built a model with the three domes of the mosque intact, and with the temple by its side — an arrangement similar to the one at the Krishna Janmasthan in Mathura. But the VHP was adamant.

The demolition of the Babri Masjid plunged the country into communal violence. The temple project, however, got a boost — now that the mosque was no longer there, the possibility of building the temple at the site believed to be the actual birthplace of Ram Lalla had opened up. Between 1992 and 1996, work on the temple went on in full swing in the ‘karyashala’ in Ayodhya, and components of the temple were crafted. But then the VHP ran out of funds, got engaged in litigation, and work slowed down. At that stage, there would be just 8-10 artisans at the site. Hope skyrocketed last November, after the Supreme Court awarded the entire land for the building of the temple on a historical verdict .

WHAT THE RAM TEMPLE WILL LOOK LIKE

The temple has been planned in the Nagar ‘shaili’ (a style of temple architecture where the temple tower is built over the sanctum sanctorum. The other major style is the Dravidian, which includes gopurams), and is far bigger than what had been originally planned. Three more spires have been added, one in front and two at the sides, to extend the gudh mandap (the covered porch); the number of columns has gone up from around 160 in the original plan to 366 (160 on the ground floor, 132 on first floor, 74 on second floor); the width of the stairway to the ‘Ram Darbar’ on the first floor has been expanded from 6 feet to 16 feet. The height of the temple has been increased from 141 feet to 161 feet, its width from 160 feet to 235 feet, and its length from 280 feet to 360 feet. The expansion was made because the government wanted space for “more people”. As per the plan, each column will have 16 idols, which will include the ‘Dashavataras’, the ‘chausath joginis’, all the incarnations of Shiva, and the 12 incarnations of the Goddess Saraswati. The unique feature of the Ram Mandir will be the octagonal shape of the sanctum sanctorum, in keeping with the design provided in the shastras for a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

The Ram temple, will be on a raised platform, and will have the four features of a typical Hindu temple: the ‘chauki’ (verandah), ‘nritya mandap’ (semi covered porch), ‘gudh mandap’ (covered porch), and ‘garbha griha’ (sanctum sanctorum), aligned on a single axis. The original would have used up to 3 lakh cubic feet of sandstone; an additional 3 lakh cubic feet will now be needed, which will be mined at Bansi Paharpur in Rajasthan. The Sompuras had initially estimated the construction to be completed in three and a half years, but the pandemic could push it back by another 6-8 months. The VHP had commissioned the building of the temple to three contractors, who have now been replaced by L&T. It was a long journey from Shah Bano case and Shilanyas to bhoomi pujan via a mobile typewriter and Vajpayee. For the Parivar, August 5 was the realization of a dream, the end of a journey and the start of another. Article 370 and the Ram temple were two ideological issues that the BJP, in the NDA’s earlier avatar under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had been forced to place on the backburner due to coalition compulsions. Ahead of the foundation-stone laying ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dressed in a golden-coloured traditional dhoti kurta, the Prime Minister’s first stop was the 10th-century Hanuman Garhi temple wherein he offered special prayers . He was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Modi was gifted a headgear by the chief priest of the temple. After spending some time at the temple, he headed to 'Shree Ram Janmabhoomi' where he took part in pooja and darshan of 'Bhagwan Shree Ramlala Virajman'. On the significance of visiting Hanuman temple first, Hanuman Garhi Mahant Raju Das said that according to legends it is believed that no work is complete without the blessing of Lord Hanuman. Seventy-six steps lead to Hanuman Garhi which is one of the most popular Hanuman temples in North India. The shrine houses Hanuman's mother, Anjani, with a young Hanuman sitting on her lap. About this temple, the Mahant said, "When Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after conquering Ravana, he gave this place to Hanuman ji to live, so its called Hanuman Garhi or Hanuman Kot. From here, it is believed that Lord Hanuman used to protect Ramkot."

Minutes before Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered the tent for the bhoomi pujan of the temple for Ram in Ayodhya, he prostrated before the idol of Ram Lalla. That single frame, beamed live by public broadcaster Doordarshan, was not just an act of devotion but a powerful message to the country — of his party keeping its word on building a temple for Ram at his janmabhoomi, an ideological promise delayed by years of coalition dharma and courtroom battles that .layed by years of coalition dharma and courtroom battles. Inside the tent, the Parivar waited: RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat; UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, whose mentor and guru Mahant Avaidyanath was one of the leading lights of the temple movement; BJP firebrand Uma Bharti, who played a frontal role in the final months of the Babri Masjid; Durga Vahini’s Sadhvi Rithambara, whose fiery speeches were manna from heaven for kar sevaks staring at the doomed mosque; Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, head of the VHP-controlled Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas and now president of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, the Trust constituted by the Centre for the construction and management of the Ram temple; VHP leader Champat Rai who is now general secretary of the Trust. For the Parivar, August 5 was the realization of a dream, the end of a journey and the start of another. It also marks one year of the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the state of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories. Article 370 and the Ram temple were two ideological issues that the BJP, in the NDA’s earlier avatar under the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had been forced to place on the backburner due to coalition compulsions. In his speech , Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS Chief recalled how Balasaheb Deoras — Madhukar Dattatreya Deoras, the third Sarsanghchalak after Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar had told them that the temple movement will require “20-30 years of struggle” and how, in the 30th year, that has been fulfilled. The movement to reclaim the disputed Ayodhya site had begun in earnest after the shilanyas in 1989 and it happened under the watch of the Congress government led by Rajiv Gandhi. Yet the first stirrings were in 1984 when the VHP called a dharma sansad and passed a resolution for the “liberation” of Ram Janmabhoomi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi planted a Parijat sapling considered a divine plant, ahead of foundation stone-laying of Ram temple. “Felicitations to all for the foundation laying of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Being built in tune with law, it defines India’s spirit of social harmony and people’s zeal. It will be a testimony to ideals of Ram Rajya and a symbol of modern India,” President Kovind tweeted.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu also offered prayers with his family at his residence on the occasion of Bhoomi Puja for the construction of Ram Temple. The Vice President described the

Prime Minister standing and praying to Lord Hanuman. The belief in India is that one cannot visit the Ram Temple without offering prayers to Lord Hanuman.

Prime Minister’s Mother Hiraben in Gandhi Nagar ,blessing his son prostrated before the idol of Ram Lalla

construction of the temple as a re-coronation of the highest human values of truth, morality, and ideals that the Maryada Purushottam epitomized during his life. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expressed hope that the temple construction will lead to unity and harmony. “It is a matter of great pleasure that the construction of the temple will be achieved with the support of people of all religions and classes,” Mr. Birla said in a statement. Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, called the event “historic”. In a series of tweets, he asserted that temple construction is now a reality because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “strong and decisive leadership”. BJP president J.P. Nadda complimented the citizens for accepting the Supreme Court verdict. “After a long struggle of 500 years, the Supreme Court paved the way for the construction of the temple and it is a matter of pride that all sections of society happily accepted this decision. The entire country set a unique example by following the ideals of Lord Ram,” Mr. Nadda said.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who had once represented the deity in court as a lawyer, tweeted: “The grand Ram temple is also the temple of the country. It is also a celebration of India’s pride, self respect and our spiritual inheritance.”

PM NARENDRA MODI BEGAN AYODHYA SPEECH WITH 'JAI SIYA RAM'

This (Jai Siya Ram) call was resonating not only in the city of Lord Ram but throughout the world .He expressed gratitude to all citizens of the nation, Indian diaspora across the world and all the devotees of Lord Ram on the pious occasion. A grand temple will now be built for Ram Lalla who had been staying in a tent. Ram janmbhoomi now breaks free of the cycle of breaking and getting built again that had been going on for centuries. Prime Minister launched the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, terms Ram temple bhoomi pujan as a modern symbol of Indian culture and with it, the country was creating a golden chapter for itself. The Ram Janmabhoomi, the birthplace of Lord Ram as believed by Hindus, had finally been liberated from the cycle of “breaking and rising up again” that had been going on for centuries and Mr. Modi termed it a “historic” moment. The centuries of wait was finally over and the performing of the ‘bhoomipujan’ for the temple here in a tightly-arranged event held amid COVID-19. With a 40-kg silver brick, a sapling and soil from across the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation for the Ram temple in Ayodhya , amid chanting of shlokas, declaring that the Ram Janmabhoomi had been “liberated” from the “centuries-old cycle of destruction and resurrection”. The Prime Minister addressed a select gathering after performing the bhoomi pujan for the temple, ,he put his mark indelibly on what he called a defining moment in the nation’s history — the culmination of a campaign that powered the rise of the BJP and marked its principal promise to its electorate. He drew a parallel between the Ram temple movement and India’s struggle for freedom. Just like August 15 is the Independence Day, henceforth, August 5, too, will stand as a powerful symbol for the “sacrifice and commitment” of generations. The entire country is emotionally charged and the wait of centuries finally ended and added that “crores cannot believe” what they have witnessed on 05 August 2020. The Prime Minister shared the dais with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Mahant Nritya Gopal Das who heads the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, a Trust constituted by the Centre for the construction and management of the Ram temple., Modi said for the Ramlalla, who has lived under a canopy and tent for years, finally a grand temple is going to be built. Several generations had devoted themselves completely during the freedom struggle. There was not a place in the country where sacrifices were not made for freedom. 15th August is the embodiment of sacrifices of millions of people and a deep yearning for independence. On similar lines, several generations have made selfless sacrifices for several centuries for the construction of the Ram temple. 5 August 2020 marked the culmination of that centuries-old penance, sacrifice and resolve. In his address he saluted them on behalf of the 130 crore people of the country and bowed before them for their sacrifices which have led to the foundation of the Ram temple. He thanked the Trust for inviting him to the event, the Prime Minister said how could he rest without accomplishing the work assigned by Lord Ram. Modi drew on Ram and the Ramayan to not just highlight their influence across India but also in other countries — from Indonesia to Malaysia, China to Nepal and Bangladesh. The Ram Temple would become a symbol of “ eternal faith,” national sentiments and collective willpower of crores of people. This temple will inspire the coming generations about faith, reverence and resolve adding that the temple would not only augment the grandeur of Ayodhya but also change the economy of the entire region. New opportunities would come up as people would come for a darshan of Lord Ram and Mata Janaki from world over.

Ram belongs to all and lives in all. He assured that this grand temple being constructed in Ayodhya will be an indicator of the rich heritage of Indian culture and to ensure that the message of Lord Ram, Ram temple and the Indian tradition of thousands of years reaches the entire world till years to come. It would be the responsibility of the present generation and future generations to make the world familiar with the knowledge and the Indian way of life.

Drawing on examples from the Ramayan, Modi said just like every being, from a squirrel to “vanar” to “kewat” to “vanvasi”, became the medium for the victory of Ram, the temple will be built by the people of the country. There is no corner of India which doesn’t reflect Lord Ram. Ram is in the faith of India, Ram is in the ideals of India, Ram is in India’s divinity, Rama resides in India’s philosophy. Owing to the situation caused by the corona pandemic, this occasion of bhoomi pujan was organized with strict decorum. The nation had displayed the decorum that should befit any work concerning Lord Ram. Similar discipline was displayed when the Supreme Court pronounced the historic decision referring to the ruling on the Ayodhya title suits which went in favour of the Hindus. Back then, the entire nation accepted the decision peacefully and graciously and kept in mind the sensitivities of everyone and was experienced in a similar way of peaceful conduct. Prime Minister Modi ended his speech by underlining the significance of the path of “maryada” (values) of Ram and said the Covid pandemic meant to maintain safe distance of two yards and always wear a mask. Ram and Ramayan belonged to all, and has been followed and written in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Kashmiri. This is the possible reason that Ram is the link for unity in diversity of India.