What the Ram Mandir event's invitation card looks like

Only a few days remain for the grand consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. And preparations are in full swing, with the city adorned with flowers, lights, and sculptures to welcome around 20 million people in the next three months. A meticulous effort is being made to turn the event into a grand affair. Invitations are being sent out to over 7,000 guests around the country. The long list of VIP guests includes notable names from politics, the entertainment industry, sports, and those who had important contributions to the Ram Mandir movement. Workers from the Sangh Parivar and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) are running a widespread campaign to invite all Hindu households for darshan at temple, visiting door-to-door and offering yellow rice, images of Ram Lalla, stickers, and a detailed history of Ram Janmabhoomi. As preparations are underway, the invitation card for the consecration ceremony is going viral on social media. Here’s how it looks. Deity’s image, booklet on temple movement The invitation cards for the consecration ceremony on 22 January is beautiful and an elegant piece of art, totally in-sync with the grandeur of the temple being built. It has an imposing image of the structure and also of a very young Lord Ram. Each invitation set has the main invitation card, the “Pran Pratishtha” programme card and a booklet describing the journey of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, along with the mention of the people who played a part in it directly or indirectly. The cover of the main card carries an image of the upcoming Ram temple and below it is printed ‘Shree Ram Dham’, and further below it ‘Ayodhya’. “Apoorva Anadik Nimantran” (Extraordinary Invitation) is also printed on the main invite’s cover.

Images of the temple and a child Lord Ram, ‘Baalrup Prabhu Ram,’ adorned with a bow and arrows and standing on a lotus may be found on the outside, as per PTI, who has seen the invitation card being sent to the guests. A silhouetted image of the temple appears on the cover of the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ programme card, and a caption below it characterises the event as Karyakram Vishesh (special ceremonial). It also mentions that the “shubh muhurat” for the “Pran Pratishtha” is 12.20 pm and the date of the consecration ceremony — Monday, 22 January, 2024. According to the invitation, the saints would commence the ‘darshan’ of the Ram Lalla statue once the visitors have left, reports India Today. Seers and karsevak families honoured guests Inside, the ceremony card mentions that consecration will take place in the August presence of “Prime Minister, Bharat”, Narendra Modi, RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and president of the temple trust Mahant Nritya Gopal Das. [caption id=“attachment_13578582” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The trust has invited 4,000 seers from across the country. File image/PTI[/caption] Actors Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia, who played the roles of Lord Ram and Goddess Sita in the famous TV serial Ramayan, have also been invited to the ceremony. The trust has also invited 4,000 seers from across the country. General secretary of the trust, Champat Rai, had earlier said, “Family members of the 50 karsevaks who lost their lives during the Ram temple movement have also been invited. Invitations have also been sent to judges, scientists, writers and poets.” The main invitation card on its inside has images of the temple and “Baalrup Prabhu Ram” — in which the deity has been depicted graphically in a young avatar wearing royal raiments, standing on a lotus, carrying a bow in one hand and an arrow in another, and royal locks of hair framing his divine face. On the next page of the main invitation card, date and other details of the ceremony have been mentioned, and the auspicious ceremony for “Ram Lala’s return to the original seat at the new grand temple-home”. The next page of the main invitation card mentions about the struggle to build the temple. The booklet carrying the profiles of those who were involved with Ram temple movement, also has artistic portraits of the personalities being described about, which include seer Devraha Baba Ji Maharaj, Mahant Abhiram Das, Paramhans Ramchandradas, KK Nayar, the then district magistrate of Faizabad in 1949-50, Thakur Gurudutt Singh: Rajendra Singh ‘Rajju Bhaiya’, and Ashok Singhal who later also served as the president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Also read: Ram temple event: Who has been invited? Who’s giving it a miss? The high-profile guests The invitation cards are being delivered to guests. A top official in the trust told PTI that “invitation cards have been printed in both Hindi and English”. The guest list also includes some foreign invitees. Over 7,000 people are on the invitee list of the temple trust — Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra — and they include cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, and billionaire industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, according to official sources. The Ram temple complex, built in the traditional Nagara style , will be 380 feet in length (east-west direction), 250 feet in width and 161 feet in height, Rai had said earlier. Each floor of the temple will be 20 feet high and have a total of 392 pillars and 44 gates. With inputs from PTI