Chief Priest of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Acharya Satyendra Das
Credit: PTI File Photo
Lucknow: Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, who was a witness to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, died at a hospital here on Wednesday after a protracted illness.
Eighty-seven-year-old Satyendra Das had been undergoing treatment at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) after being admitted there following a brain stroke. He had suffered a stroke on February 2 and was admitted to a hospital in Ayodhya before being shifted to SGPGI.
According to the health bulletin issued by the hospital, he also suffered from diabetes and hypertension.
Acharya Satyendra Das, who was also a member of the Ram Temple Trust, served as the chief priest for the past 33 years.
Das had studied Sanskrit language and had worked as an assistant teacher at the Sanskrit College in Ayodhya in 1976. He was appointed as the chief priest of the makeshift Ram Temple in 1992.
He was born on May 20, 1945, in Sant Kabir Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh.
A witness to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Acharya Satyendra Das used to visit the Ram Janmabhoomi with his father from an early age. He later renounced the world and became an ascetic.
Incidentally, his father was a disciple of Abhiram Das, who in 1949, made claims about the appearance of idols of Ram, Lakshman, Bharat, and Shatrughna at the Ram Janmabhoomi.