Waiting for Ram: Ayodhya gets ready for big day

Ayodhya: They say there are more than 1000 temples dedicated to Ram in Ayodhya. But it is the consecration of one that has captured everyone’s imagination. 

Ayodhya is racing against time. The construction of the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple is in full swing, and every second house in the ancient temple town is being spruced up for the key event. Spread over 70 acres, the three-storied edifice will be inaugurated on January 22, even though construction on the top floors will continue for a few weeks thereafter. 

A new airport is coming up and old shops are making way for new establishments. Temple entrances are different, and security and crowd management seems like a task even days ahead of the big day. Hotels are booked, and prices of services are hitting the roof. 

The marvel of the construction aside, the temple is touted as a “engineering marvel”. Materials and artisans from across the country have congregated here to build the temple. 

Members of the temple trust, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, said that in all 17,000 granite stones weighing 2,800 kgs each were brought in from Karnataka and Telangana, in addition to 4 lakh cubic feet of sandstone from Bharatpur in Rajasthan, as well as ₹4.6 crore worth of teak wood from the Balharshah and Allapalli forest reserves in Maharashtra. Marble from Rajasthan’s Nagaur and different coloured stones from Mandla in Madhya Pradesh have been sourced for the inlay work on the temple’s flooring. 

Girish Sahasrabhojanee, structural engineer and one of the designers of the structure, said that early on, they decided to not use composite materials, such as those used in modern building techniques. “This ruled out iron or pile formation, and so we used granite to build a plinth of 1.4 metres. Granite is from the strong ignius family of rocks and has very low porosity,” he said. 

He added that the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) ran a study which found that the paleo channel of the Sarayu river was close by. “To ensure that floods do not affect the temple, a retaining wall of 12 metres was made on the western side of the temple,” he added. The idea, he says, is to make a structure that lasts 1000-2500 years. Other technical bodies such as CBRI, CSRI and Aayuka carried out tests and studies during the temple’s planning. 

The 44 doors spread across the three floors of the temple, he said, will have copper engraving, covered by gold plating.  

Another key feature, Jagadish Aphale, a project manager who is taking care of the temple’s pilgrim management, sculpture and iconography, archives and museums, says that the structure has 392 columns, of which 190 are in the ground floor, each with multiple carvings that takes days to make. 

“The columns are so made that every year on the day of the birth anniversary of Lord Ram, the rays of the sun will light up his forehead,” Aphale says, adding that design from Bengaluru by Optica worked out the system. 

In all, the temple will be 161 feet tall and have a percota — a perimeter wall where devotees can walk — of up to 756 metres. He adds that bronze murals in the walls will showcase 100 stories from Ramayan. 

Champat Rai of the Temple Trust said that only 30% of the 70 acres have been under construction, keeping the remaining area green. The temple trust, he said, will have its own water supply. 

Aphale said that after studying 500 major temples, the Trust decided to have four queues to the inner chamber — one each for families, disabled, elderly, and VIPs. No offerings such as flowers or milk etc will be allowed and devotees will be given prasad. “Everything is free bit since devotees ask, donations will be open to individuals but not institutions,” Aphale said. The temple can hold crowds of up to 2 lakh a day, and up to 1500 in the temple at any given time. 

While questions have risen over why was the temple inaugurated even when construction on the first floor is ongoing, Sahasrabhojanee said that it’s not populism, politics or social compulsions that have led to do this. Aphale said it’s a matter of logistics. “The temporary, wooden temple was made to last for 3.5 years and will have run its course by March 2024, and the crowds are becoming unmanageable,” he says. 

The catch, however, is how Ram will be. Three idols have been readied and temple trust is now going to choose from one of them. “There’s a marble statue being readied, a granite one and one made of chist. This happened due to different aspirations. In fact, Nepal has sent in Salegram for the idol but priests here protested saying a sacred stone like that shouldn’t be chiseled,” a member of the trusts said. 

Placating will need to be done by January first week when a statue is selected. “Sab bhavnaon ka khel hai (it’s a play of people’s emotions.)” 

Indeed it is.