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Ram Mandir ceremony: The Ram Lalla idol was unveiled at the Pran Pratishtha ceremony attended by PM Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath. Here’s all that happened amid Ayodhya Ram Temple inauguration.

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Donning a golden kurta and a cream-coloured dhoti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the rituals of “Pran Pratishtha” ceremony at the “historic” Ram temple in Ayodhya on Monday, January 22. Lakhs of people watched the live-telecast of the ceremony on their televisions. 

2. PM Modi leads rituals

PM Modi arrived in Ayodhya on Monday to attend the consecration ceremony at newly constructed Ram temple. He landed at the Maharshi Valmiki International Airport. The ceremony began around 12:20 pm. The Prime Minister led the rituals at the Pran Pratishtha ceremony.

The Prime Minister walked inside the temple premises with a silver ‘chattar’ (umbrella) placed on a red folded dupatta. He took ‘sankalp’ for the “pran pratishtha ceremony” and later moved to the sanctum sanctorum for the rituals.

 

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PM Modi later performed the ‘aarti’ of the Ram Lalla idol at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya on Monday. He also performed ‘parikrama’ of the deity and did ‘dandvat pranam’. He also took blessings from ‘sadhus’.

PM Modi broke his 11-day fast after the new Ram Lalla idol was consecrated at the Ayodhya temple on January 22. The prime minister had started his special 11-day religious fast on January 12.

3. PM Modi’s message

Ahead of the ceremony, PM Modi tweeted, “The extraordinary moment of the consecration of Shri Ram Lalla’s life in Ayodhya Dham is going to leave everyone emotional. It is my great pleasure to be a part of this divine programme. Hail Siya Ram!.”

 

After the ceremony, he delivered a speech to address the dignitaries at the event. He said, “aaj hamare Ram aa gye hai (Today, our Ram has arrived)”. He hit out at those who had opposed the contruction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and said, ” Ram is not fire, but an energy…he belongs not just to us, but to everyone…”

He said that the construction of the Ram Temple is a reflection of the maturity of the Indian society. He added Ayodhya’s temple is a temple of national consciousness in the form of Ram.

4. PM unveils ‘Jatayu’ statue

PM Modi visited the Kuber Tila on the Ram temple premises in Ayodhya and offered worship to Lord Shiva there. He performed ‘jalabhishek’ (offering water on the ‘Shiva linga’) and also did a ‘parikrama’ (circumambulation) of the temple.

The prime minister later unveiled a statue of ‘Jatayu’ on the premises of the Ayodhya Ram temple. He showered flower petals on workers who were involved in the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

5. ‘Mangal Dhwani’ from 50 instruments resonates at Ram temple

Fifty traditional musical instruments from across the country were part of a devotional “Mangal Dhwani” that resonated during the consecration ceremony at the newly constructed Ram temple in Ayodhya on Monday. Orchestrated by Ayodhya’s celebrated poet Yatindra Mishra, the grand musical rendition was supported by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, news agency PTI reported.

 

The instruments included pakhawaj, flute and dholak from Uttar Pradesh, veena from Karnataka, algoja from Punjab, sundari from Maharashtra, mardala from Odisha; santoor from Madhya Pradesh, pung from Manipur, nagada and kali from Assam; and tambura from Chhattisgarh.

There was also shehnai from Delhi, ravanahatha from Rajasthan, shrikhol and sarod from West Bengal, ghatam from Andhra Pradesh, sitar from Jharkhand, santar from Gujarat, pakhawaj from Bihar, hudka from Uttarakhand and nagaswaram, tavil and mridangam from Tamil Nadu.

6. Pran Pratishtha ceremony: A star-studded event

Over 8,000 guests were invited to the ceremony at the grand temple. From top politicians to Bollywood stars to prominent businessmen — thousands of people becem part of the event at Ayodhya’s Ram Temple.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his family as well as steel tycoon Lakshmi N MIttal, telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal, Reliance Group head Anil Ambani and Aditya Birla group chairperson Kumar Mangalam Birla and his daughter Ananya Birla were among the businessmen in Ayodhya for the consecration of Ram temple.

Actor Madhuri Dixit’s husband, Shriram Nene, was spotted taking a selfie with his wife along with Vicky Kaushal, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Ayushmann Khurana, and Rajkumar Hirani at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya on Monday.

Besides, A video shared by news agency ANI showed Hema Malini dancing with Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti at the premises of Ram Temple. Special guests from the cricket world, film world, saint society, politics, art, literature, culture and other fields also attended the ceremony.

 

7. Nepal minister thanks PM Modi

“The world has entered the era of Ram”, Nepal’s Union Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security, Sarat Singh Bhandari was quoted by ANI as saying as he unveiled a 25-foot-tall mural of Ram and Sita in Mahottari on the occasion of Pran Pratishtha. The minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bringing all the Sanatan Hindus at one place and giving a reason to rejuvenate.

8. ‘Ban’ on telecast of consecration ceremony

On Monday, the Supreme Court asked the authorities in Tamil Nadu to act in accordance with the law and not based on any oral instructions on “banning” special prayers and live telecast of the Ram temple consecration ceremony in all temples across the state.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing a plea seeking quashing of an “oral order” dated January 20 banning live telecast of the consecration ceremony at Ayodhya in temples across Tamil Nadu. They said no one is bound to abide with the oral orders.

Earlier in the day, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while speaking to reporters in Kancheepuram, alleged that the Tamil Nadu police ‘is being misused’ by the ‘Hindu hating’ DMK regime to thwart public screening of the Ayodhya ceremony and celebrations to mark the event.

9. Rahul stopped from visiting Assam temple

High drama prevailed in Assam’s Haiboragaon on Monday after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was not allowed by authorities to visit the Sri Sri Sankar Dev Satra temple in Bordua near Nagaon.

Gandhi, along with other Congress leaders, was reportedly stopped at Haiboragaon and not allowed to proceed further. He questioned the police on why he was being stopped from visiting the temple. “Will PM Modi now decide who will visit a temple and when,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi was scheduled to pay obeisance to the local deity before starting his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on Monday. Meanwhile, authorities were quoted by PTI as saying that Gandhi will be allowed permission to visit the temple only at 3 PM.

10. How Opposition leaders celebrated the day

> Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Cabinet ministers and AAP MLAs took part in various events across the national capital. The AAP organised shobha yatras, ‘Sundar Kand’ recitals and bhandaras in different parts of the national capital to celebrate the ‘Pran Pratistha (consecration)’ ceremony.

Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said in a post in Hindi on X, “On the auspicious occasion of the ‘Pran Prathistha’ at the Ram temple, I had the privilege of attending the ‘Sundar Kand’ recital organised at Sheikh Sarai 2. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has organised shobha yatras and ‘Sundar Kand’ recitals in every ward of Delhi. Jai Siya Ram.”

> West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee began the all-faith harmony rally in the metropolis on Monday. The TMC chief, accompanied by religious leaders of various faiths and party leaders, began the ‘Sanghati March’ from Hazra More here.

Clad in her trademark white and blue bordered cotton sari with a shawl wrapped around her neck, Banerjee was seen greeting people and onlookers on both sides of the road with folded hands. Banerjee began the rally after offering puja and prayers at the iconic Kalighat temple in the city.

> Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath extended greetings on the ‘Pran Pratistha’ of Ram Lalla at Shri Ram Janambhoomi Temple in Ayodhya and prayed for the prosperity and happiness of the countrymen.

Nath shared a video message on X and wrote, “When the construction of Ram temple started in Ayodhya, I welcomed it through a video message and congratulated the countrymen for this much-awaited event. The Temple of Lord Ram is being constructed in Ayodhya on the orders of the Supreme Court. Since there is a BJP government in the centre and the state (Uttar Pradesh), the responsibility to follow the order of the Supreme Court is on the BJP government.”

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Published: 22 Jan 2024, 05:57 PM IST