Ayodhya: The first anniversary celebrations of the Ram Lalla idol consecration ceremony at the Ram temple here started on Saturday with a large number of devotees reaching the holy city to take part in various events.
Religious and cultural programmes will commence in the Ram Temple complex starting Saturday. The anniversary celebrations began with the recitation of the Yajurveda.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will perform the ‘abhishek’ of Ram Lalla. The grand ‘aarti’ of the deity will take place around 12.20 pm, followed by an offering of 56 dishes to the deity.
The court of Ram Lalla has been decorated with flowers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who led the consecration ceremony on January 22 last year, greeted citizens on the occasion.
“Best wishes to all citizens on the first anniversary of the consecration of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya. This temple, built after centuries of sacrifice, penance and struggle, is a great heritage of our culture and spirituality.
“I am confident that this divine and magnificent Ram temple will become a great inspiration in the accomplishment of the resolution of a developed India (Viksit Bharat),” he said in a post on X in Hindi.
Adityanath said in a post on X, “Jai Jai Shri Ram.”
Anup Mishra, a local resident who was at the temple to witness the anniversary celebrations, said, “We were not able to come to the Ram Janmabhoomi when the Pran Pratistha was done in January 2024, but we were fortunate enough to reach the court of Ram Lalla on the first anniversary of the ceremony.”
Sarla Maheshwari, who has come from Bhopal, said, “We reached Ayodhya two days ago to take part in the anniversary celebrations and are excited that today we will see the deity.”
Scheduled from January 11 to 13, the celebrations aim to include common people, who were unable to attend the historic ceremony last year, alongside 110 invited VIPs, according to the temple trust.
A German hangar tent has been set up at the Angad Teela site, capable of hosting up to 5,000 people. Common people will have the opportunity to witness the grand event, which includes classical cultural performances, rituals and daily Ram Katha discourses at the pavilion and the ‘yagnashala’.
“The trust has decided to invite common people who could not attend the consecration ceremony last year. They will be allowed to join all three days of events at the Angad Teela,” Champat Rai, the general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had earlier said.
The trust also said that invitation letters have been distributed to guests, including the 110 VIPs, many of whom missed the original ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony on January 22, 2024. “Those who were unable to attend last year would be included in this anniversary celebration,” Rai had said.
The trust also extended invitations to saints and devotees from across the country, with Rai urging residents and pilgrims to participate in the celebrations on at least one of the three days and experience the spiritual atmosphere of Ayodhya.
The pavilion and the ‘yagnashala’ will serve as key venues for the festivities.
An idol of the new Ram Lalla was consecrated at the Ayodhya temple on January 22, 2024. At the event, Prime Minister Modi gave a clarion call to go beyond the grand temple’s construction to build the foundation of a “strong, capable and divine” India of the next 1,000 years.
The inauguration of the temple marked the culmination of a decades-long campaign, mostly under the Hindutva banner, to reclaim a disputed religious site in Ayodhya. Modi said it was the advent of a new era.
