New Idol of Ram Lalla to be installed on Thursday

Amid controversies over the completion of the temple and political statements, the new idol of Ram Lalla will be installed on the seat inside the sanctum sanctorum on January 18, in a significant milestone ahead of the pran pratishtha ceremony on January 22.

The pre-rituals for the consecration ceremony started from Tuesday. On Wednesday, the idol, sculpted by Arun Yogiraj, was scheduled to be brought inside the temple complex and given a tour. However, it had not been brought in until the time of filing this copy. Instead, a symbolic idol was given a tour of the complex. Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trustee Anil Mishra also performed a puja at the Saryu Ghat in Ayodhya.

"Tomorrow (Thursday) morning, most likely, Ram Lalla will arrive inside the Garbha Griha," temple construction committee chairman Nripendra Mishra said. Mishra said in the coming 2-3 days, the idol will be bathed in water from various rivers.


Meanwhile, various prominent personalities offered their defence to the claim by one of the shankaracharyas - Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the shankaracharya of Jyotishpeeth in Uttarakhand - who said the ceremony was against the shastras as the temple construction was still incomplete as well as the alleged politicisation of the ceremony by BJP.

"The temple is complete. Ram Lalla's temple will have a garbha griha, five mandaps and will be on the ground floor, and this temple is complete. The first floor which is under construction is Ram Darbar, where Sita ji, his brothers and Hanuman ji will reside and the second floor is for various anushthaans and yagyas. Whatever is happening is an effort to deliberately not understand the right thing," Mishra told ANI.

VHP international working president Alok Kumar referred to the Somnath temple construction which was carried out under the Congress' leadership and said at that time too, after the Garbha Griha was constructed, president Dr Rajendra Prasad had carried out the consecration.