The “Pran Pratishtha” ceremony at Ram temple in Ayodhya will mark a historic moment in the country. The Ayodhya Ram Mandir ceremony will be held for a week, with the rituals starting on January 16 and continuing till January 21. The main event will be held on January 22, it will begin at 12:20 pm on January 22 and is expected to end by 1 pm. Ayodhya, with a rich history of mythology, has been decked up ahead of the “Pran Pratishtha” ceremony, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Other interesting thing to note about the “Pran Pratishtha” ceremony is that 121 “acharyas” will be conducting all the events in the run-up to the January 22 event. The principal “acharya” will be Laxmikant Dixit of Kashi.
Schedule of the week-long celebration
January 16: Prayaschita and Karmakuti Poojan
January 17: Parisar Pravesh of Ram Lalla’s idol. On this day, a silver idol was carried around the temple premises
January 18: Teerth Poojan, Jal Yatra and Gandhadhivas
January 19: Aushadhadhivas, Kesaradhivas and Ghritadhivas will be held in morning. On the same day, Dhanyadhivas will be held in the evening
In the morning of January 20th, Sharkaradhivas and Phaladhivas will be held, while Pushpadhivas in the evening
A day before the finale (on January 21): Madhyadhivas in morning and Shaiyadhivas in evening
The ‘yajman’ or main host at the rituals – including the ones conducted on the final consecration days – is trust member Anil Mishra and his wife Usha Mishra. All the prayers are offered on yajman’s behalf.
Who all are invited?
Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra on Monday said that the events will focus on diverse representation, historic tribal representation and being inclusive of traditions.
The guest list of Ram temple event
President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, president of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mallikarjun Kharge (Invitation declined), Sonia Gandhi (Invitation declined), Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary (invitation declined), Manmohan Singh
Industrialists invited for Ram temple ceremony: Gautam Adani, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, N Chandrasekaran, Anil Agarwal, NR Narayana Murthy
Film personalities: Mohanlal, Rajnikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Madhuri Dixit, Chiranjeevi, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Akshay Kumar, Dhanush, Randeep Hooda, Ranbir Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, Rishab Shetty, Madhur Bhandarkar, Ajay Devgn, Jackie Shroff, Tiger Shroff, Yash, Prabhas, Ayushmann Khurrana, Alia Bhatt, Sunny Deol.
Sportspersons who have been invited: Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Deepika Kumari.
The guest list also includes a large number of sadhus and seers and some foreign invitees. According to Champat Rai, general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, representatives of L&T and Tata Consulting Engineer – the two companies serving as project management consultants for the Ram temple – will also attend the temple opening event.
The January 22 consecration ceremony
PM Modi is scheduled to deliver a speech at the end of the consecration ceremony, expected to be attended by 8,000 guests. But only a handful of them will be allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.
The trust said there are seven adhivasas in the ‘”Pran Pratishtha” and a minimum of three adhivasas are in practice.
A brief history
The fractious issue goes back more than a century but in 2019, the Supreme Court, in a historic verdict, backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the ‘bhoomi pujan’ of the temple in August 2020.
In the run-up to the ceremony, people from different states are reaching Ayodhya with water, soil, gold, silver, gems, clothes, jewellery, huge bells, drums, aroma and fragrance items.
A group has started a remarkable journey of 1,400 kilometres from Surat to Ayodhya on their bicycles to be a part of the ceremony.
Gifts for Ram temple
A 108-foot-long incense stick, which weighs 3,610 kg, has been prepared in Gujarat for the consecration ceremony. A lock and key weighing 400 kg with 10-foot height has been prepared by a locksmith from Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh.
Apart from this, a Lucknow-based vendor has designed a clock that denotes time in eight countries at the same time. This too is one of the gifts for Ram Lalla. Moreover, a giant lamp weighing 1,100 kg and capacity for 851 kg ghee, has been gifted to Ram temple.
An artist from Hyderabad will present gold-plated footwear to Lord Ram, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTP) will send one lakh laddus for distribution to devotees on the consecration day, a merchant in Surat has made a necklace using 5,000 American diamonds and 2 kg silver, and a bell made of ‘ashtadhatu’ has also been prepared for the Ram temple.
A chef in Nagpur said he will prepare 7,000-kg halwa for devotees.
Security during the “Pran Pratishtha” ceremony
The local police have installed 10,000 CCTV cameras in the entire Ayodhya district to ensure proper surveillance. Also, policemen who are fluent in many languages will be deployed at the January 22 ceremony venue in plain clothes.
In some of CCTV cameras, the police are using AI-based technology.
Director General (DG), Law and Order, Prashant Kumar, told news agency PTI that the police have converted all the major roads coming towards Ayodhya into green corridors so that traffic is not disrupted. Heavy traffic will be diverted around Ayodhya from January 18 and a traffic advisory has been issued.
Security near Sarayu river, which flows in Ayodhya, has also been increased with the deployment of power boats, the NDRF and SDRF teams, and local boatmen.
