Ram temple work at steady pace

By Sunny Sebastian

PINDWARA (RAJASTHAN), JUNE 6. Chipping and chiselling of rose-red sandstone blocs are on at a steady pace in this tehsil town where the raw material for the proposed future Ram temple at Ayodhya lay scattered waiting to be shaped up.

Three stone carving units in this town, working overtime since the Vishwa Hindu Parishad gave them the assignment of pre- fabricating the material for the proposed temple way back in 1995, have completed 200-odd 17 feet high stone pillars for the Rang Mandap and Garb Griha. The work is now on for the temple walls or Mandovar.

``Every month at least one truck goes from here to Ayodhya with ready stone material. Sometimes three truck-loads are sent,'' says Mistry Hansa Ram, who supervises the temple work at the new unit of the Sompura Marble and Temple Works. The new workshop, spread over two bighas of land, is reserved exclusively for work on the Ram temple work.

The Sompuras and the Mahadev Shilp Kala Kendra at the nearby Ajari and the Bharat Kala Kendra in Kojra village have lot of work in hand due to the VHP order.

Back in this parched town of temple-makers exactly after a gap of two years on a Ayodhya temple construction update, this correspondent found certain steadiness in the work at the carving units. The stone slabs are coming at regular intervals from the mines of Bansi Paharpur, 600 km away in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan while trucks carrying finished parts are leaving for their destination as planned.

Mr. Paresh Sompura of Sompura Marbles says the work has picked up momentum in the past two months. Mr. Ashok Singal, president of the VHP is in touch. ``He recently told us to increase the labour and expedite the work,'' Mr. Sompura informs.

``Even at this speed it will take 10 years for all parts to be complete. The total 1.30 lakh cubic feet of estimated stone only 25,000 is ready so far,'' observed Acharya Giriraj Kishore, the vice president of the VHP during an interaction with the media in Jaipur over the weekend.

The period mentioned by the VHP leader for completion of the work may be realistic going by the magnitude of the task. However this does not mean that a portion of the temple cannot/would not be built as and when it suits the major players.

With the elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly round the corner there is bound to be more reference to the work on the proposed temple at Ayodhya. The VHP has already announced a ``yatra'' from Jaipur to Ayodhya with a stone model of the proposed temple. Perhaps Pindwara could have been a better starting point for the ``yatra'' instead of Jaipur.

Chiselling and chipping of marble pillars in full swing at the workshops in Pindwara in Rajasthan. The pillars are for the Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Other States
Previous : DDA plan for demolition