Rite from Guinness yesterday in the city of the temple dedicated to Ram
On the occasion of the celebration of Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, last night, in Ayodhyia, along the banks of the Saryu river, 280 thousand “dyias”, the votive candles that burn in small terracotta bowls, were lit.
The spectacular event, which also saw a fire ritual, the aarti, performed by 1,100 volunteers and in which the governor (chief minister) of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, also took part, was the eighth of this type in the city and the first after the inauguration, last January, of the temple dedicated to Ram. At least 6 thousand people followed him from the steps leading down to the river, while forty giant screens broadcast it live. The event is a candidate to enter the Guinness Book of Records.
According to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the event took on “historic significance” because “thousands of lamps illuminated the Ram temple, the god’s birthplace, after 500 years of waiting”. The temple, inaugurated by the prime minister himself last January, was built on the site where, until December 1992, stood the Babri Masjid, a mosque dating back to the sixteenth century, destroyed by an assault by Hindu extremists.
The legal dispute to attribute ownership of the site lasted until 2019, when a final ruling by the Supreme Court assigned it to the Hindu foundation, which started construction of the temple.
