The construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is set to commence Wednesday when the first bricks will be laid for its foundation, according to a spokesperson for the head of the temple trust. The ceremony will be marked by prayers to Lord Shiva at the Kuber Tila shrine on the Ram Janmabhoomi site, allocated for the temple in a historic Supreme Court verdict last November.
The ‘rudrabhishek’ ceremony follows the tradition set by Lord Ram, who prayed to Shiva before beginning the attack on Lanka, said the spokesperson for the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust.
The task of placing the foundation of the temple will begin after these specific prayers. The prayers will be performed by Kamal Nayan Das and other priests on behalf of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, who visited the site recently. The ritual will begin at around 8 am.
‘This religious ceremony will last for at least two hours and after that, the construction of the Ram Mandir will start with the laying of the foundation of the mandir structure,’ Kamal Nayan Das said.
In March, the Ram Lalla deity was ceremoniously moved to a new spot from the makeshift temple at the site, clearing the way for the development of the temple.
On May 11, earth-moving machinery was stationed for smoothing the site. The 16th-century Babri mosque that stood on the contradicted site in Ayodhya was destroyed in 1992 by Kar Sevaks claiming that originally there was a Ram temple at the same place.
In the verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute, the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the construction of a temple at the site.
It also ordered that an alternative five-acre plot must be found within Ayodhya for a mosque. A separate trial in the Babri mosque demolition case is continuing in a special court in Lucknow.
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