The 51-inch Ram Lalla idol, sculpted by Arun Yogiraj, will be installed in Ayodhya’s Ram Temple on Monday at the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ event. The original Ram Lalla idol, the new one, and the two that were not chosen will all remain at the Ram Temple, according to Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
The old idol will be put in front of the new one, according to Govind Dev Giri, treasurer of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. A new Ram Lalla idol will be installed because the previous one is five to six inches tall and cannot be seen from a distance of 25 to 30 feet. Currently, the old idol is in an interim shrine.
“It (the original Ram Lalla idol) will be placed in front of Ram Lalla. The original idol is very important. It is five to six inches in height and cannot be seen from a distance of 25 to 30 feet. That is why we needed a bigger idol,” said Giri, as per PTI report.
The new Ram Lalla statue has been installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The idol’s eyes will be revealed on January 22 at 12:20 p.m. IST as part of the Pran Pratishtha rites.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust chose the idol because it embodied the characteristics they were seeking for. According to the trust, the new idol wonderfully balances childlike purity with divinity and royalty.
“It was very difficult for us to choose one idol out of three. All of them are very beautiful and all followed the criteria provided by us,” said Giri on the selection of the Ram Lalla idol sculpted by Arun Yogiraj.
“The first criterion was that the face should be child-like with a divine glow. Lord Ram was Ajaanbaahu (a person whose arms reach near the knees). So the arms should be of that length.”
The two idols that were not chosen by the trust will also remain on the Ram Temple grounds. One is a 51-inch statue carved in black stone, while the other is crafted in pure white Makrana marble from Rajasthan. They will be on the temple’s first and second floors.
