AYODHYA BRIGHTENS UP FOR DIWALI
Elaborate plans make residents feel temple town is returning to Ram’s era for a day
A brightly illuminated Nayaghat ‘Ram ki Peri’ on the eve of ‘Chhoti Diwali’ in Ayodhya on Tuesday. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate the celebrations marking the ‘festival of lights’ in the Holy City on Wednesday.
AYODHYA : All lanes of Ayodhya are decked up for grand Diwali celebrations to be held here on Wednesday on the eve of the festival of lights. Governor Ram Naik, chief minister Adityanath and other dignitaries will be present during the celebrations.
The faithful believe Diwali marks Lord Ram’s return to Ayodhya after a 14-year exile.
The festive mood was palpable in the temple town on Tuesday with hundreds of temples illuminated with decorative lights. This will be the first time that a chief minister will be in Ayodhya on the occasion.
To make the celebrations perfect, a rehearsal of the Divya Deepotsav was organised at the Naya Ghat on banks of the River Saryu on Tuesday evening. Divya Deepotsav is the official name given to the Wednesday’s celebrations.
The state tourism department in association with the Avadh University (Faizabad) and the district administration are aiming to set a new world record by lighting over 171,000 earthen oil lamps on the stairs of the Saryu ghats at Ram ki Paidi on the Diwali eve.
Hundreds of people assembled at the ghat to witness the trial run. The grand scale on which the Wednesday’s celebration has been planned make some here feel that the town has returned to the Treta Yug, the era to which Ram belonged.
“This year Ayodhya will be returning to Treta Yug on Chhoti Diwali, a day before actually Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya,” said Ram Awadh, 71, a local, as he stood on the banks of the Saryu to witness the rehearsal at Naya Ghat. Divya Deepotsav is the official name given to the Wednesday’s celebrations.
“All this has been possible only because of CM Yogi Adityanath. I have never seen Diwali celebrations planned on such a grand scale in Ayodhya,” said Ram Awadh.
A round of Ayodhya on Tuesday made it appear the Yogi government wants to make the event as majestic as possible and decorate it the way Bharat, Lord Ram’s brother, did when his sibling returned to Ayodhya.
“Through the Diwali celebrations, Yogi Adityanath wants to bring back Lord Ram and Ayodhya into the epicentre of Uttar Pradesh politics,” said a senior BJP leader of the town, refusing to be named.
The mood was also upbeat near Hanuman Garhi, the historic temple of Lord Hanuman.
Harish Kumar, a tea-stall vendor near Hanuman Garhi, said: “This Diwali in Ayodhya will be a ‘never before’ event. Only the real sequence of events when Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile could have matched the present celebrations.”
Ved Prakash Gupta, BJP MLA from Ayodhya, said: “All is set for the grandest Diwali in Ayodhya. Who knows Lord Ram may actually come down in Ayodhya from heaven tomorrow (Chhoti Diwali) to witness the celebrations!” Gupta is the man in charge of the Diwali celebrations here.
The highlight of the celebrations will be a half-an-hour laser show portraying Ram’s journey from Ayodhya to Lanka.
Adityanath will welcome the ‘Ram Shobha Yatra’at Ram Katha park.The day will begin with a heritage walk at 7am in which people from all walks of life will participate.