Maha: Teakwood from Chandrapur being sent to Ayodhya Ram temple, says minister

A consignment of high-quality teakwood meant for the Ayodhya Ram temple started its journey from Maharashtras Chandrapur district on Wednesday after a pooja and performance by hundreds of artists. The construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is likely to be completed months before the deadline, an office bearer of the Sri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had said last week.

A consignment of high-quality teakwood meant for the Ayodhya Ram temple started its journey from Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district on Wednesday after a pooja and performance by hundreds of artists. Sudhir Mungantiwar, state minister for forests, cultural affairs and fisheries, said the highly durable wood has been sourced from the area, which is a part of the Dandakaranya mentioned in the epic Ramayana. The consignment has about 1,855 cubic feet of teakwood, which will be used to build the main entrance of the temple, the door of the sanctum sanctorum and other doors in the main temple structure, said the minister. The consignment was taken on a grand procession amid a performance by 1,946 artists. Several film personalities also attended the function. Materials conforming to the highest quality standards and many with mythological significance are being sourced for the temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya town, said officials. Two massive ‘shaligram’ stones have been brought to Ayodhya from Nepal to sculpt Lord Ram’s idol, said the minister. The trustees of the Ayodhya temple had contacted the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun and were told that the teakwood from Chandrapur district is the best, Mungantiwar said. “Following a request from Champat Rai, general secretary of Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, we decided to send high quality teakwood. It is a great honour for us that we could send teakwood for Lord Ram’s temple in Ayodhya,” said Mungantiwar. The minister said Lord Ram’s paternal grandmother Indumati belonged to the Vidarbha region in present-day Maharashtra. “It is a historic moment that teakwood is being dispatched from the grandmother's land to build her grandson’s temple,” said Mungantiwar. The construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is likely to be completed months before the deadline, an office bearer of the Sri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had said last week. “We are confident that the temple will be completed three months before the due date. So we have advanced the deadline from December 2023 to September 2023. Now, the temple will get its final shape in September,'' said Prakash Gupta, in-charge of the trust's office at Ram Janambhoomi.

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