The run-up to the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony on January 22 began on Tuesday with a series of rituals, led by a member of the temple trust and his wife.

The rituals will reach their finale with the consecration or Pran Pratishtha of the idol of Ram Lalla at the new temple in Ayodhya.

“The anushthan has started and will continue till January 22, the day of the consecration ceremony. Eleven priests are performing the rituals invoking all goddesses and gods,” Ram temple chief priest Satyendra Das said.

The yajman at the rituals — including the ones conducted on the final consecration days — is trust member Anil Mishra and his wife Usha Mishra.

The yajman is the main host of a puja — the person on whose behalf the prayers are offered. Mishra has to attend the rituals on all days, including on January 22 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present.

Earlier, there was a debate on whether Modi is entitled to adopt the role which usually goes to a householder.

Modi is scheduled to deliver a speech at the end of the consecration ceremony, expected to be attended by around 8,000 guests. However, only a handful of the guests will be allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

Around 121 Acharyas are conducting the rituals and Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid is overseeing, coordinating and directing all proceedings of the anushthan. The principal Acharya will be Laxmikant Dixit of Kashi.

Over the next week, rituals such as teerth poojan, jal yatra and gandhadhivas will take place. On Monday, the prayaschita and karmakuti poojan took place.

The Pran Pratishtha will begin at 12.20pm on January 22 and is expected to end by 1pm, temple trust general secretary Champat Rai told reporters on Monday.

Settling a fractious issue that goes back more than a century, the Supreme Court in 2019 paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the holy town.

Prime Minister Modi performed the bhoomi pujan of the temple in August 2020, bringing to fruition the BJP’s mandir movement that defined its politics for three decades and propelled it to power.

PTI