Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Yogi Adityanath unveiled
a 7-foot tall
statue of Lord Rama at the Shodh Sansthan museum in Ayodhya on 7 June. Adityanath
will also inaugurate the event to celebrate Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.
Ram
Statue:
The statue is made out of a single rosewood block statue
which was from Karnataka for Rs.35
lakh from Karnataka. The statue will depict Kodamb Ram,
one of the five avatars of Lord Ram.
Kodamb
Ram is worshipped in the
south. The statue depicts the stage of Ram’s life when Sita was kidnapped by
Ravan, the demon king. The statue shows Ram alone, without Sita and Laxman.
Ayodhya
Shodh Sansthan:
The Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan museum was established in 1986. The
museum is a government-funded museum. It hosts works related to the Hindu epic Ramayana.
The
Dispute:
Lord Ram is said to have been born in Ayodhya. Ayodhya is at
the heart of a dispute which involves the site where the 16th-century Babri
mosque stood before it was razed in 1992 by Hindu activists. It is believed
that it was built on the ruins of an ancient temple marking the birthplace of
Lord Ram. After the mosque demolition, 2,000 people died across the country in
the riot.
In 2018, the Uttar Pradesh State government
announced a project to build a Ram statue on the banks of the Sarayu river. It
is expected to measure 221 metres topping even the famed freedom movement icon
Sardar Patel’s Statue of Unity in Gujarat. The central government is yet to
announce a date for the construction of Ram temple.
