Ram Mandir
The Ram Mandir, is a Hindu temple complex in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. Many Hindus believe that it is located at the site of Ram Janmabhoomi, the mythical birthplace of Rama, a principal deity of Hinduism.
The temple was inaugurated on 22 January 2024 in an elaborate ceremony led by Indian Prime Minister Modi, in which the Hindu priests performed religious rituals for prāṇa pratiṣṭhā of the deity. On the first day of its opening, the temple received a rush of over half a million visitors. The temple continues to have a high number of daily visitors reportedly between 100,000 and 150,000. Ram Mandir has become one of the top religious tourism places in India, drawing over 135.5 million visitors in 2024. The temple construction was completed on 25 November 2025 with an event marked by hoisting of the Dharma Dhwaja.
The site of the temple had been the subject of communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India, as it was the former location of Babri Masjid, built around 1528. In the 1850s, a fence was erected and Hindus were allowed to worship in the outer courtyard. In 1949, the Murti of Rama was placed inside the fence. In 1980s, a campaign was launched by Vishwa Hindu Parishad to claim the site for Hindus, which led to the structure being attacked and demolished in 1992. In 2019, the Supreme Court of India delivered the verdict to give the disputed land to Hindus for construction of a temple, while Muslims were given land nearby to construct a mosque. The court referenced a report from the Archaeological Survey of India as evidence of a pre-existing non-Islamic structure beneath the demolished Babri Masjid.
On 5 August 2020, the bhūmi pūjana for the commencement of the construction of Ram Mandir was performed by PM Modi. The temple construction was supervised by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. On 22 January 2024, Modi served as the Mukhya Yajamāna of rituals for the event and performed the prāṇa pratiṣṭhā of the temple. The prana pratishtha ceremony was held in the garbhagriha where the infant form of Rama deity, referred as Ram Lalla was sanctified and worshipped with religious rituals.
The temple is designed in the Nagara style of Hindu temple architecture. The temple's main structure includes garbha griha and five mandapas, with shikharas. The presiding deity, Ram Lalla is centrally located in the sanctum sanctorum, on the ground floor, while the first floor houses the Ram Darbar, including Ram, Sita, Lakshman, and Hanuman. The temple complex includes six smaller temples of Surya, Goddess Durga, Ganesh, and Shiva at its four corners, while Maa Annapurna and Hanuman temples are on its the northern and southern sides.
Background
Significance of Rama
Rama is a prominent Hindu deity who is regarded as a of the God Vishnu. Some Hindus view Rama as Para Brahman. Rama holds immense significance in Hinduism. According to Hindu mythology, the Rama avatar is not supposed to exhibit any of Vishnu's divine potencies, and he leads his life as a human. As Rama is said to have possessed sixteen ideal qualities, Hindus view Rama as , , and . According to the Hindu epic Ramayana, Rama was born in a mythical city named Ayodhya. The present-day city of Ayodhya, which emerged in the second century CE, is a separate settlement and not the same as the Hindu mythical city of the same name. Present-day Ayodhya was named "Saketa" until it was renamed in the fifth century CE by a king of the Gupta Empire who wished to associate himself with the mythical birthplace of Rama.Deity
The Ram Mandir is being built to commemorate the birth of Rama: therefore, the presiding deity of the temple is supposed to be the infant form of Rama, an avatar of Vishnu. Rama in that infant form was referred as Ram Lalla by Tulsidas. However, the idol of Rama that was placed in 1949 referred to as Ram Lalla Virajman by local Hindus. Ram Lalla was a litigant in the court case over the disputed site in 1989, being considered a "juristic person" by the law. He was represented by Triloki Nath Pandey, a senior VHP leader who was considered Ram Lallas closest 'human' friend. As a new idol of the deity got installed in the sanctum sanctorum as the ', the Mandir Trust has informed that the Ram Lalla Virajman idol of 1949 shall henceforth be used as ''.History
The site is the former location of the Babri Masjid, which was built in the 16th century. The mosque was attacked and demolished in 1992. In 2019, the Supreme Court of India delivered the verdict to give the disputed land to Hindus for the construction of a temple, while Muslims would be given land elsewhere to construct a mosque.Medieval
In 1528, a commander of the Mughal Empire, Mir Baqi, constructed the Babri Masjid mosque, under the order of Babur. The site chosen for the mosque is identified by many Hindus as Ram Janmabhoomi, the mythical birthplace of Rama. The earliest record of the mosque may be traced back to 1767, in the Latin book Descriptio Indiae, authored by the Jesuit missionary Joseph Tiefenthaler. According to him, the local population believed that the mosque was constructed by destroying the Ramkot temple, believed to be the fortress of Rama in Ayodhya, and the Bedi, where the birthplace of Rama is situated.Modern
Disputed location
The first instance of religious violence was documented in 1853. In December 1858, the British administration prohibited Hindus from conducting puja at the contested site. A platform was created for conducting rituals outside the mosque.Murtis of Rama and Sita were installed inside the Babri Masjid on the night of 22–23 December 1949, after which devotees began visiting the site. By 1950, the state took control of the mosque under Section 145 CrPC and allowed Hindus, not Muslims, to perform their worship at the site.
In the 1980s, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, belonging to the Hindu nationalist family, Sangh Parivar, launched a new movement to reclaim the site for Hindus and to erect a temple dedicated to the infant Rama at this spot. The VHP began to collect funds and bricks with "Jai Shri Ram" written on them. Later, the government under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi gave the VHP permission for to proceed, with the then Home Minister, Buta Singh, formally conveying the permission to the VHP leader, Ashok Singhal. Initially, the Government of India and the Government of Uttar Pradesh had agreed that the s would be conducted outside of the disputed site. However, on 9 November 1989, a group of VHP leaders and Sadhus laid the foundation stone by digging a pit adjacent to the disputed land. The of the sanctum sanctorum was constructed there. The VHP then laid the foundations of a temple on the land adjacent to the disputed mosque.
Demolition of the Babri Masjid
On 6 December 1992, the VHP and the Bharatiya Janata Party organised a rally at the site involving 150,000 volunteers, known as karsevaks. The rally turned violent, the crowd overwhelmed the security forces and tore down the mosque.The demolition of the mosque resulted in several months of inter-communal violence between India's Hindu and Muslim communities, causing the death of an estimated 2,000 people in Bombay as a direct consequence, and triggering riots all over the Indian subcontinent. A day after the demolition of the mosque, on 7 December 1992, The New York Times reported that over 30 Hindu temples across Pakistan were attacked, some set on fire, and one was demolished. Hindu temples in Bangladesh were also attacked.
On 5 July 2005, five terrorists attacked the makeshift Ram temple at the site of the destroyed Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. All five were shot dead in the ensuing encounter with the Central Reserve Police Force, while one civilian died in the grenade attack that the attackers launched to breach the cordoned wall. The CRPF suffered three casualties, two of whom were seriously injured with multiple gunshot wounds.
ASI excavations
Reports on two archaeological excavations in 1978 and 2003 conducted by the ASI claimed to have found evidence indicating that a temple existed on the site. The claims were heavily disputed by critics as contradictory and unreliable. Archaeologist K. K. Muhammed maintained that remains of a Hindu temple were found in 1978, and accused several historians of averting a settlement for the dispute.Court rulings
Over the years, various title and legal disputes took place, such as the passage of the Acquisition of Certain Areas at Ayodhya Act in 1993. In 2010, the Allahabad High Court ruled that the of disputed land be divided into three parts, one going to the Ram Lalla or Infant Rama, represented by the Hindu Mahasabha for the construction of the Ram temple, one going to the Muslim Sunni Waqf Board, and one going to Hindu religious denomination Nirmohi Akhara. All three parties involved appealed against the division of disputed land to the Supreme Court.In the Supreme Court's verdict on the Ayodhya dispute in 2019, it was decided that the disputed land would be handed over to a trust formed by the Government of India for the construction of a Ram temple.
The court referenced the 2003 report from the ASI, as evidence suggesting the presence of a structure beneath the demolished Babri Masjid, that was found to be non-Islamic. The Supreme Court, in its landmark judgement concluded that the underlying structure beneath the mosque was not an Islamic structure, and also concluded that no evidence was found that a non-Islamic structure was specifically demolished for the construction of the Babri Masjid. Another salient aspect in the apex court's judgement is on the question on the claim of Hindus that disputed structure as the birthplace of Rama. The court observed that the Hindu claim is 'undisputed' and opined that there is clear evidence that Hindus believed that site to be Rama's birthplace.