A new idol of Lord Ram will be installed at the grand Ram Temple. (File)
A new idol of Lord Ram will be installed at the sanctum sanctorum of the grand Ram Temple at a height of nine feet and the finest sculptors will be engaged for it, a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust said Friday.
The idol of Ram Lalla which had mysteriously appeared in Babri Masjid on the intervening night of December 22 and 23 in 1949 setting in motion a 70-year-long legal battle will not be installed in the new temple, he said.
After a decades-long legal battle, the Supreme Court on November 9, 2019, paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple in the disputed site at Ayodhya, where Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. The prime minister performed the "Bhoomi puja" for the construction of the temple on August 5, 2020.
Talking to PTI, Champat Rai, the secretary of Ram Mandir Trust, said, "We will hold discussions with all senior Seers over the making of the new idol of Ram Lalla. We have selected stones from Karnataka, Odisha and Maharashtra for the idol.
"It will be installed at the height of 9 feet in the sanctum sanctorum and at such an angle that the rays of the rising sun will touch the forehead of Lord Ram. We have constituted a team of experts from CSIR-CBRI, and the Centre of Astronomy and Astrophysics to install the idol in such a way that the rays of the rising sun touch the forehead of the idol," Mr Rai added.
However, the exact appearance and expressions and face have not been decided, he said. According to a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, sculptors Sudarshan Sahu and Vasudev Kamath from Odisha, K K V Maniya from Karnataka and Shatrayagya Deulkar from Pune have been asked to send the draft of idols for final selection.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday announced the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will be ready by January 1, 2024.
However, Champat Rai on Friday said, "As per the plan, the idol of Ram Lalla will be installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple on Makar Sankranti (January 14) in 2024." By the end of 2023, the construction at the sanctum sanctorum is expected to be completed, he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)