Transubstantiation

• The consecration rituals of the icon of Lord Rama were performed in a newly built mega-temple in the town of Ayodhya, India, on Jan. 22, 2024.
• The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, performed the rituals during a 48-minute period considered auspicious by Hindu astrologers.
• Lord Rama, an avatara or incarnation of Vishnu, is one of the most important deities in the Hindu tradition.

From matter to deity

• There are fire sacrifices in a pavilion outside, the deity is taken formally into the temple and also in a procession through the town, and there is recitation of mantras.
• Precious stones and metals, as well as a yantra, a metal plate with geometrical drawings, are buried in the ground in the inner shrine where the deity is to be installed.
• In Ayodhya, a scarf was removed from the eyes of the deity.
• With the opening of the eyes and the invoking and transfer of breath, the material icon is said to be transformed into an incarnation of the deity.

Controversies over the temple land

• The new temple has been built on the land where a 16th century mosque – the Babri Masjid – was destroyed by Hindu activists in December 1992.
• Some Hindus claim that the mosque had been built by razing a 15th century Rama temple, said to be the site of his birth.

• Building the temple was started soon after this judgment.
• Devotees’ sentiments as well as speeches at the inauguration of the temple spoke of Rama’s return to Ayodhya after 500 years of being banished from his birthplace.

‘Not in our names’

• Indian Air Force choppers rained flowers on the temple after the consecration.
• Some observers, including outsiders sympathetic to Hinduism, saw these rituals as a glorification of Modi, not Rama.
• For during the prana pratishtha, the divine is said to become present in the icon, if the rituals are properly performed.

Vasudha Narayanan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.