Hundreds of devotees gathered in Ayodhya on Wednesday to witness the grand Ram Navami celebrations at the Ram temple, but one of them stood out - a young boy from Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur who was painted black and dressed as Ram Lalla.
In a video shared by the news agency ANI, he was seen adorned with a golden crown and necklaces.
His attire resembled the black granite idol that now graces the Ram temple's sanctum sanctorum.
Earlier on Wednesday, pujas and special events were organised across the country to celebrate Ram Navami, a festival that commemorates the birth of Lord Ram.
The celebrations were of a grander scale, of course, in Ayodhya, which is considered the birthplace of Lord Ram.
Devotees had begun queuing up outside the newly consecrated temple before dawn and the holy city reverberated with the chants of Jai Shree Ram.
At noon, the grand temple also witnessed a unique event as the forehead of the Ram Lalla idol was anointed with a ray of sunlight, known as 'Surya Tilak'.
A meticulously designed system of four mirrors and two lenses was used to direct a ray of sunlight on the forehead of the 51-inch idol.
READ | The Science Behind 'Surya Tilak' Ceremony At Ayodhya's Ram Temple
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in the middle of his Lok Sabha election campaign in Assam, also watched the event on his tablet computer.
"After my Nalbari (Assam) rally, I watched the Surya Tilak on Ram Lalla. Like crores of Indians, this is a very emotional moment for me. The grand Ram Navami in Ayodhya is historic. May this Surya Tilak bring energy to our lives and may it inspire our nation to scale new heights and glory," he wrote on X.
The Ram idol was consecrated in a ceremony led by PM Modi on January 22.
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