History of Ram Mandir

 Ram Mandir

The Ram Mandir is a Hindu temple that is

under construction in Ayodhya, Uttar

Pradesh, India. It is located at the site of

Ram Janmabhoomi, the hypothesized

birthplace of Rama, a principal deity of

Hinduism.

[6][7] The site is the former

location of the Babri Masjid which was

built after the demolition an existing non-

Islamic structure.

[8] The worship of Hindu

god Ram and Sita at the disputed site

started when their idols were installed in

1949.

[9]

In 2019, the Supreme Court of

India delivered the verdict to give the

disputed land to Hindus for a temple of

Ram, while Muslims would be given land

elsewhere to construct a mosque.

[10] The

court referenced a report from the

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as

evidence suggesting the presence of a

structure beneath the demolished Babri

Masjid, that was found to be non-

Islamic.

[11]

The bhumi pujan (transl. ground breaking

ceremony) ceremony for the

commencement of the construction of

Ram Mandir was

performed on 5

August 2020, by

Prime Minister

Narendra Modi.

[12]

The temple,

currently under

construction, is

being supervised by

the Shri Ram

Janmabhoomi

Teerth Kshetra

Trust. The

inauguration of the

temple is scheduled

Ram Mandir

Religion

Affiliation Hinduism

Deity Ram

Lalla

(infant

form of

Rama)

Governing

body

Shri Ram

Janmabho

Teerth

Kshetra

Status Under

construction

Location

for 22 January

2024.

[13]

The temple has

attracted a number

of controversies due

to alleged misuse of

donation, sidelining

of its major activists

and politicisation of

the temple by the

BJP.

[14][15][16][17]

Location Ram

Janmabhoo

Ayodhya

State Uttar

Pradesh

Country India

Shown within

Uttar Pradesh

Show map of

Uttar Pradesh

Show map of India

Show all

History

Ancient and

Medieval

Rama, an

incarnation of

Vishnu, is a Hindu

deity. According to

the ancient Indian

epic, Ramayana,

Rama was born in

Ayodhya.

[18]

In the 16th century,

the temple was

Geographic

coordinates

26.7956

82.1943

(https://

ohack.to

forge.org

geohack

hp?page

ame=Ra

_Mandir

params=

6.7956_

_82.194

E_type:la

dmark_r

ion:LK)

Architecture

attacked and

destroyed by Babur

in his series of

temple raids across

northern India.

[19]

Later, the Mughals

constructed a

mosque, the Babri

Masjid, which is

believed to be the

site of the Ram

Janmabhoomi, the

birthplace of

Rama.

[20] The

earliest record of

the mosque may be

Architect(s) Sompura

family

[a]

Type Hindu

temple

architecture

Creator Shri Ram

Janmabhoom

Teerth

Kshetra

Construction

by Larsen &

Toubro

(assisted by

Tata

Consulting

Engineers,

CBRI,

traced back to 1767,

in the Latin book

"Descriptio Indiae,

"

authored by the

Jesuit missionary,

Joseph Tiefenthaler.

According to him,

the mosque was

constructed by

destroying the

Ramkot temple,

believed to be the

fortress of Rama in

Ayodhya, and the

Bedi, where the

National

Geophysical

Research

Institute and

IITs)

Groundbreaking 5 Au

202

Completed 22 Janua

2024

[4]

Specifications

Height

(max)

161 feet

(49 m)

[5]

Site area 2.7 acres

(1.1 ha)

[5]

Temple(s) 1 central

temple

birthplace of Rama

is situated.

[21]

The first instance of

religious violence

was documented in

1853.

[22]

In

December 1858, the

British

administration

prohibited Hindus

from conducting

puja (transl. rituals) at the contested site.

A platform was created for conducting

rituals outside the mosque.

[23]

Modern

The murtis (transl. idols) of Rama and Sita

were installed inside the Babri Masjid on

the night of 22–23 December 1949 and the

devotees begin to gather from the next

day.

[24][9] By 1950, the state took control of

the mosque under section 145 CrPC and

allowed Hindus, not Muslims, to perform

their worship at the site.

[25]

In the 1980s, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad

(VHP), belonging to the Hindu nationalist

family, Sangh Parivar, launched a new

movement to reclaim the site for Hindus

and to erect a temple dedicated to the

infant Rama (Ram Lalla) at this spot. The

VHP began to collect funds and bricks

with "Jai Shri Ram" written on them. Later,

the government under Prime Minister Rajiv

Gandhi gave the VHP permission for

Shilanyas (transl. the foundation stone

ceremony) to proceed, with the then Home

Minister, Buta Singh, formally conveying

the permission to the VHP leader, Ashok

Singhal. Initially, the Government of India

and Government of Uttar Pradesh had

agreed that the shilanyas would be

conducted outside of the disputed site.

However, on 9 November 1989, a group of

VHP leaders and Sadhus laid the

foundation stone by digging a 200-litre (7

cubic-foot) pit adjacent to the disputed

land. The singhdwar (transl. main entrance)

of the sanctum sanctorum was

constructed there.

[26] The VHP then laid

the foundations of a temple on the land

adjacent to the disputed mosque. On 6

December 1992, the VHP and the Bharatiya

Janata Party organised a rally at the site

involving 150,000 volunteers, known as

karsevaks. The rally turned violent, the

crowd overwhelmed the security forces

and tore down the mosque.

[27][28]

The demolition of the mosque resulted in

several months of inter-communal

violence between India's Hindu and Muslim

communities, causing the death of an

estimated 2,000 people in Bombay (now

Mumbai) as a direct consequence, and

triggering riots all over the Indian

subcontinent.

[29] A day after the demolition

of the mosque, on 7 December 1992, The

New York Times reported that over 30

Hindu temples across Pakistan were

attacked, some set on fire, and one was

demolished. Hindu temples in Bangladesh

were also attacked.

[27]

On 5 July 2005, five terrorists attacked the

makeshift Ram temple at the site of the

destroyed Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. All five

were shot dead in the ensuing encounter

with the Central Reserve Police Force

(CRPF), while one civilian died in the

grenade attack that the attackers

launched to breach the cordoned wall. The

CRPF suffered three casualties, two of

whom were seriously injured with multiple

gunshot wounds.

[30][31]

Two archaeological excavations in 1978

and 2003 conducted by the Archaeological

Survey of India (ASI) found evidence

indicating that the Hindu temple's remains

existed on the site.

[32][33] Archaeologist K.

K. Muhammed accused several left-

leaning historians of undermining the

findings.

[34] Over the years, various title

and legal disputes took place, such as the

passage of the Acquisition of Certain Area

at Ayodhya Act in 1993. It was only after

the Supreme Court's verdict on the

Ayodhya dispute in 2019, that it was

decided that the disputed land would be

handed over to a trust formed by the

Government of India for the construction

of a Ram temple. The trust was eventually

formed under the name of the Shri Ram

Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra. On 5

February 2020, it was announced in the

Parliament of India that the government

under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had

accepted a plan to construct the temple.

Two days later, on 7 February, five acres of

land were allocated for a new mosque to

be built 22 km (14 mi) away from Ayodhya

in Dhannipur village.

[35][36]

The original design for Ram Mandir was

devised in 1988 by the Sompura family of

Ahmedabad.

[2] The Sompuras have

contributed to the design of over 100

temples worldwide for at least 15

generations, including the Somnath

temple.

[37] The chief architect of the

temple was Chandrakant Sompura,

assisted by his two sons, Nikhil Sompura

and Ashish Sompura, who are also

architects.

[38]

A new design, with some changes from the

original, was prepared by the Sompuras in

2020,

[38] per the Hindu texts, the Vastu

shastra and the Shilpa shastras.

[39] The

temple will be 250 feet wide, 380 feet long

and 161 feet (49 m) high.

[40] Once

complete, the temple complex will be the

world's third largest Hindu temple.

[38]

It is

designed in the Gurjara-Chaulukya style of

Nagara style architecture, a type of Hindu

temple architecture found primarily in

northern India.

[37] A model of the proposed

temple was showcased during the Prayag

Kumbh Mela in 2019.

[41]

The temple's main structure will be built on

a raised platform with three storeys. It will

have five mandapas in the middle of the

garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) and on

the entrance passage. Three mandapas on

one side shall be of Kudu, Nritya and Rang,

and the two mandapas on the other side

will be of Kirtan and Prarthana. In Nagara

style, the mandapas are to be decorated

with shikhara.

[42][43]

The building will have a total of 366

columns. The columns will have 16 idolsoffered to oversee the design and

construction of the temple free of cost,

and became the contractor of the

project.

[45][46] The Central Building

Research Institute, National Geophysical

Research Institute and the Bombay,

Guwahati and Madras IITs are assisting in

areas such as soil testing, concrete and

design.

[47][48]

The construction work will be

accomplished with 600,000 cu ft

(17,000 m3

) of sandstone from Baansi in

Rajasthan.

[39] There will be no use of iron

in the construction of the temple, and the

fusing of the stone blocks will require ten

thousand copper plates.

[49]

In a culturally

significant move, Thailand is also

symbolically contributing to the

inauguration of the Ram Mandir, by

sending soil to the Ram Janmabhoomi,

building on their prior gesture of sending

water from two rivers in Thailand to

honour the temple.

[50]

Deity

Ram Lalla Virajman, the infant form of

Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, is the presiding

deity of the temple.

[51] Ram Lalla's dress

was stitched by tailors Bhagwat Prasad

and Shankar Lal, a fourth generation tailo

to Rama's idol.

[52] Ram Lalla was a litigant

in the court case over the disputed site in

1989, being considered a "juristic person"

by the law.

[2] He was represented by Triloki

Nath Pandey, a senior VHP leader who

was considered Ram Lalla's closest

'human' friend.

[51] According to the temple

trust, the final blueprint includes temples

dedicated to Surya, Ganesha, Shiva, Durga,

Vishnu and Brahma in the temple

grounds.

[53] Two idols of Ram Lalla (one of

them being 5 years old) will be placed in

the sanctum of the temple.

[44]

On December 29 2023, the selection of the

idol of Ram Lalla for the Ayodhya Ram

temple was done through a voting

process. Karnataka-based sculptor Arun

Yogiraj created the idol of Rama.

[54][55][56]