ARTISANS BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL AS WORK ON TEMPLE STONES SPEEDS UP

AYODHYA: A first-time visitor to the ‘Shri Ram jan mab ho om iN ya sK a ry ash a ala’ is likely to be astonished on entering the place. Scores of carved stone pillars, ceilings labs, floors lab sands labs for steps— allin pink sand stone–are heaped around the large workshop. In one corner, sculptors work on giants labs of wood and stone, towering columns ofcarved stone surrounding them. Ram worshippers gather around a wall of bricks and touch the wall in reverence–each brick has the word “Sri Ram” engraved. The distance between the workshop and the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site is three kilometre.

“Sixty-seven per cent of work is over. All this, when assembled, would make the ground floor of the Shri Ramjanmab ho o mi Temple ,” said Sh ar ad S harm a, a spokesperson of the Vishwa Hindu Paris had( V HP) that runs the workshop.

The workshop has two giant stone cutters. A shed serves as the workplace for the stone-carvers. In the middle of the workshop is a wooden model of the proposed temple. And on aside, there are living quarters for workshop staff and artisans. The foundation-laying ceremony for the temple happened on November 10, 1989. In 1990, the workshop was set up, and stone consignments started coming in. Stone carving work began in 1992. “But, work slowed down since 1997 because of the pend ency of the case in the court,” Sharma said.

Since Yogi Adi ty ana th, a public proponent of the Ram temple, took over as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in March this year, work has picked up again .“Twenty truckloads of stone, a total of 4,000 cubic feet, came between August and November,” said Sharma.

An artisan, Rajnikant, 50, from near Ahmed a bad in Gujarat, is one of the four workers at the workshop these days. “I have been camping at the workshop for three years, get ₹400 per day, I live in the quarters behind. All the carving and chi selling work is done manually .”

The architect is Ahmedabad-based Chandrakant Bhai Sompura, whose grandfather built the So mn a th Temple in Gujarat .“It will take at least one-and-ahalf year for the stone carving work to finish. At least six months will go into laying the foundation for the temple ,” he told HT over the phone. Sompura also said the original project cost was ₹5.35 crore, but had ballooned four times.