The date of Ram Lalla’s Surya Abhishek is fixed on April 17
The entire optomechanical system needed to carry out the historic event has been installed in order to brighten the Ram Lalla idol’s forehead with sunlight on the occasion of Ram Navmi, which falls on April 17, amidst the ongoing daily trials for the “Surya Abhishek” of Ram Lalla consecrated in the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The chairman of the Temple Construction Committee, Nripendra Mishra, a former IAS official, said on Monday that on Ram Navmi, the sun will shine on the 51-inch-tall statue that represents Lord Ram at five years old for five minutes.
“The scientists are not leaving anything to chance to make those divine moments grand,” Mishra said. “Efforts are underway to make technical arrangements for the ceremony.”
Ram Navmi, which commemorates the birth of Lord Ram, is observed on the ninth day of the first month of the Hindu calendar. Usually, this occurs in March or April. This is the first Ram Navmi, commemorating the birth of Lord Ram after the January 22, 2024, dedication of his infant form in Ayodhya.
A year of work, according to S.K. Panigrahi, principal scientist for the project at the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, will allow sunlight to fall on Lord Ram’s forehead on Ram Navmi. In April 2023, the professional team started working on this project. Together, the experts from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)’s Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, had made it happen.
The sunlight will decorate Ram Lalla’s forehead with a circular “tilak,” measuring around 75mm, which represents the “Surya Tilak” of the Suryavanshi ruler, according to the Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust sources. From now on, on Ram Navmi every year, an identical ritual will be held to light the garbhagriha with sunrays, modeled after the 13th-century Sun temple at Konark, Odisha.
According to the idea, at midday, when the sun is at its highest point above the temple, its rays will pass through the garbhagriha and be refracted by fine lenses within the sanctum sanctorum, landing on Ram Lalla’s forehead.
According to Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust sources, Ram Lalla’s forehead would be adorned with a 75mm circular “tilak” in the sunlight, which represents the “Surya Tilak” of the Suryavanshi ruler. Every year on Ram Navmi, an illumination of Garbhagriha will take place akin to the Sun temple of the thirteenth century.
