Dwarka peeth Shankaracharya wanted Ram temple in Ayodhya on lines of Angkor Wat, claim disciples

Dwarka peeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati wanted Ram temple in Ayodhya to be constructed on the lines of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, his disciple and former Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh recalled on Sunday. The former MLA, Kalyani Pandey, also claimed that the Shankracharya had prevailed over the then Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi to get the locks of the then Babri mosque, which housed the idols of Lord Ram, in Ayodhya opened.

The locks were opened in February 1986 on the order of the District Court of Faizabad.

"He yearned for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He wanted it to be constructed on the lines of Lord Shiva temple at Angkor Wat in Cambodia," said Pandey, a former Mayor of Jabalpur.


Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world.

Shankracharya's followers said he was once detained while leading a yatra for the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

The Shankaracharya died at the age of 99 in his Ashram in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district due to cardiac arrest, the Ashram said.