On this day 30 years ago (December 6, 1992), hundreds of Karsevaks brought down the disputed structure of Babri Masjid at Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.
The Babri structure was symbolic of brute strength, of how native culture was subjugated, and how the universally adored Lord Ram was shown his position by the invaders. It was a dark symbol of tyranny and barbarism. On December 6, 1992, that monument of tyranny came crumbling down and thus began another chapter in the glorious history of the great Hindu Civilization.
Though the structure was demolished, the struggle for the reclamation of Ram Janmabhoomi continued until the Supreme Court, in a historic decision on 9th November 2019, ruled in favour of Ram Lalla Virajmaan and ordered the government of India to provide support for the construction of the Ram Mandir. A trust was formed in February 2020 as per the court’s guidelines.
On August 5, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did the Bhoomi Pujan which marked the beginning of the construction of the Bhavya Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.
Prior to the Bhumi Pujan, the idol of Ram Lalla was shifted from the makeshift tent, where Ram Lalla (infant Lord Ram) had been living for years, to a new structure in the early hours on March 25, 2020, in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
How the temporary ‘temple tent’ of Ram Lalla came up in Ayodhya after the Babri demolition in 1992
At this point, before we proceed any further, it becomes crucial to revisit how Ram Lalla’s ‘temporary Mandir’ or the ‘makeshift temple tent’ appeared in Ayodhya following the demolition of the disputed Babri Masjid structure in 1992.
Notably, as the date of Bhoomi Pujan for Ram Mandir inched closer, several stories about the demolition of the disputed structure of Babri Masjid started surfacing. One such story was of the temporary Mandir of Ram Lalla that was raised in 1992 after the demolition.
Baba Satyanarayan Maurya, one of those Karsewaks who were present at the time when the temporary Mandir was built, had then in a video, narrated how they had to think quickly and build a temporary Mandir to place the Ram Lalla idol at the site before armed forces entered the premises to take them away.
I broke into tears😭
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Baba Satyanarayan Maurya, famous by the name Baba said, “on 7th December, when we came to know that police is arriving at the demolition site in few hours we did not have any way to build the temple quickly. If we did not build a temporary Mandir at the site, it would have still been a disputed land, not the location of Ram Mandir. Bhagwan Ram showed us the path, and we built a small temporary Mandir using the cloth we took with us to make banners.”
Basically, before the demolition of the mosque, Ram Lalla’s idol was placed inside the mosque under its central dome. It was placed by some devotees on a December night in 1949, after which the mosque was locked by the government to prevent any communal violence. Before that, both Muslims and Hindus worshipped at the site, as the British government had divided the site into two parts by erecting a fence in 1859. The inner court including the mosque was given to Muslims, while Hindus were allowed to use the outer court. After the mosque was demolished in 1992, the temporary temple, which was basically a tent, was raised to place the idol.
Ram Lalla idol shifted from ‘temple tent’
The ‘temporary Mandir’ or the ‘temple tent’ remained in the same structure till the time Ram Lalla was shifted in March 2020 by Yogi Adityanath ahead of the construction of the Ram Mandir.
With the shifting of the idol, the site was cleared for the construction of the grand Ram temple.
According to reports, the Ram Lalla idol was placed on a 9.5 kg silver throne in the new structure. The idol of the deity will remain in the structure till the construction of the Ram temple is completed on the site that has been allotted to the Ram Lalla by the Supreme Court.
In October this year, Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath informed that over 50% construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya has been completed. According to the temple trust, the Lord Ram idol is likely to be enshrined in the temple’s sanctum sanctorum on Mankar Sankranti Day in 2024, and the temple’s construction, which began in 2020, is anticipated to be finished by the end of 2024.
Ram Mandir construction in Ayodhya
The construction work on the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya began on August 5, 2020, after the foundation stone laying ceremony by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra (SRJBTK), the authority in charge of Ram Mandir’s operations, is supervising the temple’s construction. Former IAS Nripendra Mishra is the chairman of the construction committee.
Larsen & Toubro is the main contractor for the construction of the temple and the ramparts, while Tata Consulting Engineers has been hired as the project management consultant, while four other engineers four engineers Jagdish Aphale (IIT- Mumbai), Girish Sahastrabhujani (IIT-Mumbai), Jagannathji (from Aurangabad), and Avinash Sangamnerkar (from Nagpur) are also working voluntarily on behalf of the Trust.
The entire project is projected to cost between 900 and 1,000 crores and will be spread over 110 acres of land. The temple complex will also include a museum, a research centre, and an archival centre. By December 2023, the temple’s lower floor, which will house the sanctum sanctorum and a Ram Lalla idol, would be ready for worship.
