The idol of Ram Lalla being taken inside Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple complex through a crane, ahead of its consecration ceremony, in Ayodhya.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: The newly-built idol of Ram Lalla was on Thursday placed in the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram temple amid chanting of Vedic hymns by the scholars and a series of rituals.
The 51-inch idol, made of stone and weighing around 150 kilograms depicting Lord Rama as a five-year-old boy, was brought inside the sanctum sanctorum on Wednesday night by a truck. ''Ram Lalla will now sit on his asana (seat),'' said a priest associated with the rituals in Ayodhya.
Before taking the idol to the 'asana', it was washed with the waters brought from various sacred rivers in the country, the priests said.
The scholars performed Ganesh Pujan and other rituals while the idol was taken to the sanctum sanctorum.
Meanwhile, the pre-consecration rituals continued in Ayodhya. On the third day of the special rituals leading to the consecration ceremony on Monday, 'teerth pujan' (worshipping the major pilgrimages) was performed among others.
More than ten thousand glass bangles were offered to Ram Lalla on Thursday by the bangle manufacturers from Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad town, which is famously known as the 'Bangle city'. The bangles were handed over to Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Khestra Trust General Secretary Champat Rai in Ayodhya by state minister Jaiveer Singh. Singh said that a large number of Muslim workers had helped in manufacturing the bangles.
Filmstar turned politician and BJP MP Hema Malini, who was in Ayodhya on Thursday, said that the town was all set to emerge as a major tourist destination with top-class infrastructure.