Watch the breathtaking first images of “Surya Tilak” on Ayodhya’s Ram Lalla
In the middle of the temple’s first Ram Navami festivities on Wednesday, the much anticipated “Surya Tilak” ritual for Ram Lalla’s idol got underway in the “garbh griha” of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir.
The ritual was set to happen between 12:16 and 12:21 p.m., when the sun would have symbolically marked Ram Lalla’s idol’s forehead. The dedication of Ram Lalla in January of this year is the first major religious event that the festivities commemorate.
A complex system combining mirrors and lenses was created by experts at the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) to enable the deity’s “Surya tilak.”
CBRI specialists set up shop in Ayodhya to install an optomechanical system on the temple’s ground level in cooperation with researchers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics-Bengaluru. The scientists tested the system on Tuesday.
