10 key facts about the Ram Mandir and the groundbreaking ceremony

With the Babri Masjid-Ram Janamabhoomi dispute finally coming to fruition, the proponents of Ram Mandir will see the foundations of the temple being laid down at Ayodhya today.

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As the country gears to celebrate the occasion amidst the coronavirus pandemic, here are 10 things you need to know about the 'bhoomi pujan' or groundbreaking ceremony and the Ram Mandir, which will begin construction after the ceremony:

1. PM Narendra Modi, who is invited to the ceremony, will be planting a Parijaat sapling on the temple premises as it is considered ‘holy’, news agency ANI reported.

2. Nepal’s Pashupatinath temple which is dedicated to Lord Shiva will hold prayers for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, according to a Times of India report. The chief priest said that to understand Lord Ram, a person needs to understand Shiva and their relevance in the Hindu Mythology as well.

3. Tribal priests from Jharkhand have left for Ayodhya and are carrying the soil and water of the rivers of the State for the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan ceremony.

4. A caged gangway has been built for devotees going for the darshan of Ram Lalla at the makeshift temple to protect them from the menace of monkeys. Municipal authorities and the animal husbandry department have been asked to keep premises safe. An Information department official said that catapults and wooden batons will be used to keep the monkeys away but fruit and grams are the most effective weapon.

5. PM Modi will unveil a plaque and release commemorative postage stamps to mark the occasion of the inauguration of the Ram temple, the PMO said.

6. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and Congress leader Kamal Nath has sent 11 silver bricks for the foundation laying ceremony.

7. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a spiritual leader, who tried to mediate and bring all the disputed parties to a negotiation has not been invited to the ceremony in Ayodhya.

8. Coming from a family of architects, Chandrakant Sompura, the temple architect, was asked to design the temple 30 years ago. His father, Prabhashankar Sompura designed and oversaw the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple.

9. Sompura said that he has followed the popular North Indian Nagara style of architecture to design the temple. The temple will now have 5 instead of 2 domes to accommodate more devotees and a ‘shikhara’ or a tower built over the sanctum sanctorum.

10. BJP leader LK Advani, was one of the key charioteers of the Ram Mandir movement. Advani, 92, who will not be attending the event in person, on Tuesday recalled how destiny had made him “perform a pivotal role" in the form of the Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990, "which helped galvanise the aspirations, energies and passions of its countless participants.” Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra was stopped and he was arrested on October 23, 1990, in Bihar as per the orders of then-state Chief Minister Lalu Prasad.