Balak Ram

Balak Ram (, ), also known as Ram Lalla, is the presiding deity of the Ram Mandir, a prominent Hindu temple located at Ram Janmabhoomi, the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama in Ayodhya, India. ''Balak Rama'' is housed in the sacred ''sanctum sanctorum'' () of the ''Ram Mandir'', a traditional Nagara style temple. The ''murti (idol)'' was consecrated in an elaborate Prana pratishtha ceremony on January 22, 2024.

Rama is one of the principal deities of Hinduism and is traditionally considered by Hindus as the seventh avatar, or incarnation, of Vishnu. Before the Ram Mandir's inauguration, the deity was referred to by the previous name of , whose deity was first placed in the complex in 1949. The Ram Mandir location and the building of the mandir is controversial due to the demolition of a mosque formerly located at the place, and is an important subject of political debate in India.

''Balak Ram'' deity represents a five-year-old form of Lord Ram and was prepared by sculptor Arun Yogiraj adhering to the Shilpa Shashtra, a sacred scripture of the sculpting world. On April 17, 2024, the first Ram Navami (Ram's birth festival) after the consecration of Ayodhya's Ram Temple with ''Balak Ram'' murti was celebrated by thousands of devotees across India. On this occasion, the forehead of the ''Ram Lalla'' idol was anointed with a ray of sunlight, known as .

Historical background

According to the ''Ramayana'', Rama was born in Ayodhya. The '' Masjid-i-Janmasthan'' (mosque of birthplace) was built by Babur at the site, allegedly destroying a Hindu temple commemorating Ram's birthplace. Historical accounts by some European travellers who visited Ayodhya during the early modern period report that the Hindus believed the mosque and its immediate surroundings to be the exact birthplace of Rama.

In 1949, the idols of "Ram Lalla" were placed in the disputed mosque, with some locals claiming that they had miraculously appeared there. Subsequently, in 1950, the state administration took control of the structure and allowed Hindus to perform worship at the site. Further, in the 1980s, Hindu nationalist groups and political parties launched a campaign to construct the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir ("Rama birthplace temple") at the site. On 6 December 1992, a Hindu nationalist mob destroyed the mosque.

As the dispute continued in courts, a survey was conducted by ASI in 2003 on the 2.77-acre disputed land as ordered by the Allahabad High Court. According to BR Mani, who led this survey, there was evidence that a temple of ''Nagara style'' of North India existed at the place before the construction of the mosque. In 2019, the contentious Ayodhya dispute was settled by the Supreme Court of India, which gave the disputed site to Hindus for a temple, and allotted a separate land to the Muslims for a mosque. After the Ayodhya verdict, the construction of the Ram Mandir temple and the choice of the deity of Rama was supervised by Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, a trust that was set up by the Indian government in 2020.

Naming

The deity was originally referred to as until the construction of the Ram Mandir. In the ', Tulsidas uses the word . or is an affectionate term for children in Braj Bhasha, the language of Tulsidas. The trust says the deity of the newly constructed Ram Mandir shall be called as the name was used by Tulsidas in the ''Rāmacaritamānasa''.

Attributes of the ''murti'' (idol)

The ''Balak Ram'' ''murti'' () represents Rama in the form of a small child. Three Indian sculptors, namely, Ganesh Bhatt, Satyanarayan Pandey, and Arun Yogiraj, were assigned the task of making the idol of the deity by the trust. As per the trust, the characteristics of the deity were supposed to be a 5-year-old () with () possessing both () and () looks. The ''murti'' sculpted by Yogiraj was chosen as the presiding deity. The other two are to be placed within the temple as minor deities. Initially, the sacred Devashila stone of Kali Gandaki river in Nepal was chosen for carving the idol of Ram Lalla but due to some religious reasons it was not used. Then Yogiraj used a three billion-year-old stone that was found at Gujjegowdanapura village in Mysore, Karnataka and sculpted it by adhering strictly to the guidelines of the ''Shilpa Shastras''. The Trust informed that the black-stone is water resistant and non-reacting to the acidic nature of milk when (i.e. ritualistic holy bath) is done. In the idol, the deity of Balak Ram is in the (i.e. standing pose) on (i.e. a double row lotus seat). On both sides of the main idol, Hindu Gods and symbols are carved on the (i.e. stone arch). They are 10 avatars of Vishnu, Hanuman, Garuda, Swastik, Om, , , , , Brahma, Shiva and Surya. Sage Vedavyasa extolls Rama with the epithet of ' () and his bow was said to be ' () in the Ramopakhyana of Mahabharata. However, in sharp contrast to other idols sculpted in South India, the Balak Ram idol doesn't have any carved weapons. Instead, a golden bow and arrow were fitted to their deity. The bow has been crafted carefully by artisans in Chennai as per the description of Rama's bow in the Ramayana.

After consecration, the Hindus refer to the idol in the sanctum sanctorum as '' mūlavirāṭ mūrti'' or ', while any replica of it used in festivals is called as '' utsava mūrti'' (lit. idol for festivals). The trust has clarified that the 9-inch high ''Ramlalla Virajman idol'' which was placed in the mosque in 1949 will be henceforth used as the ''utsava mūrti''.

Consecration

The ''prana pratishtha'' (i.e. consecration ceremony) of the deity in the ''garbhagriha'' (sanctum sanctorum) of the Ram Mandir occurred on 22 January 2024. The consecration ceremony included recitation of sacred hymns and mantras to invite the deity into the idol, which was henceforth considered as the resident deity ''Balak Ram''. The Trust has announced that every year on the consecration day as Pratiṣṭha dvādaśi shall be celebrated as per the Hindu calendar. According to that calendar, it falls on the twelfth day of the first fortnight of Pushya month; i.e. , which is also celebrated by the Hindus as that is the appearance day of Lord Vishnu in the form of a tortoise.

Adornments

Since antiquity, it has been a custom to offer and adorn Hindu deities with precious metals and valuable stones. The Balak Ram murti was adorned with of gold and no less than 18,000 precious stones such as diamonds, Zambian emeralds, and rubies. Various artisans who crafted the ornaments for the deity have referred to Hindu scriptures about Rama such as Valmiki Ramayana, Adhyatma Ramayana, Alavandar Stotra and Ramacharitamanasa.

Service to deity

Hindu deities are offered services to deity such as and . From epigraphic records about Hindu temples we get to know that the services offered to deity are also referred as ' (). Per Hindu tradition, consists of services to the body of the deity such as (), (), (), (), (). Likewise, include music (either vocal or instrumental) and dance performed in front of the deity. The trust has informed that there will be six offered to the Balak Ram. They are
* () is offered to awaken the deity in the morning
* () is offered after fully decorating the deity
* () is offered as mid-day royal meals and prepared for a siesta
* () is offered to awaken deity from siesta
* () is offered performed during twilight
* () is offered to put the deity to sleep
Every day, the deity is venerated with an (A service for every ; three hours). To offer services, the temple has five halls, namely , (), (), (), and ().

* ''Surya Tilak'' (Sanskrit : सूर्य: तिलक) is an annual service to the deity on the occasion of Ram Navami ( Rama's Birthday) in which a beam of sunlight is directed onto the forehead of the idol of Lord Ramlalla at the new Ram Mandir temple. This is achieved using an apparatus with mirrors and lenses specially designed by IIA, Bengaluru.

Dressing

In Hindu temples, dressing the holy deity is considered as a form of devotional service known as (). The deity is dressed on Sunday with pink coloured clothes, on Monday with white, on Tuesday with red, on Wednesday with green, on Thursday with yellow, on Friday with cream, and on Saturday with blue. On the day of consecration, the deity was dressed in a yellow ''dhoti'' and a red '' angavastra''. The deity will be dressed in yellow on special occasions.

Temple architecture

Ram Mandir was built in the Maru-Gurjara school (also known as Solanki), which is a sub-style of Nagara architecture of Indian temples that exist in Northern, Eastern, and Western India. It is still under construction and will be the third largest upon completion. The Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham in New Jersey are the largest Hindu temples in the world. As per the modified design, it shall have three floors with five domes, and the whole complex spans around . The (trans. main dome) shall be high. The architect of the Ram Mandir is Chandrakant Sompura, whose father was Prabhakar Sompura, the Somnath temple's architect.

Following the traditional Nagara style temple architecture, the ''Balak Rama'' murti (idol) is housed in centrally located sacred ''sanctum sanctorum'' (garbha griha) of the ''Ram Mandir'' temple in Ayodhya.

See also

*Venkateswara
*Vitthala

Notes

References

External links

{{Commons category, Balak Ram

Rama
Ayodhya