Viraat Ramayan Mandir
Planning
The temple is inspired from Angkor Wat Temple in Cambodia and Rameshvaram Ramanathan Temple and Madurai Meenakshi Sundareshvara Temple in Tamilnadu. The temple will comprise 18 shrines for various Hindu deities; Rama and Sita being the principal deities. The plan is spearheaded by Acharya Kishore Kunal.
Patna based, Mahavira Mandiram Trust first proposed the project, as Virata Angkor Wat Rama Sita Mandiram in Hajipur as model on Angkor Wat, the twin city of Patna. The temple trust acquired 65 hectares (161 acres) of land in East Champaran district and therefore the earlier site of Hajipur had been abandoned.
In August 2012, after the concern and sentiment of the Cambodian Government, when Indian Government told Mahavira Mandiram Trust do not build exact reconstruction of Angkor Wat as it will collapse and destroy by weakness. The trust changed the name from Virata Angkor Wat Rama Sita Temple to Virata Ramayana Mandiram as Angkor Wat cannot be constructed back as it will breakdown in weakness and it is a Rama Sita Temple. On November 13, 2013, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar unveiled a model of the temple.
Location
It is located at a distance of 60 km from Vaishali and at a distance of 120 km from Patna, the capital of Bihar, 13 km from Chakia, and 96 km from Raxaul. Its exact location is at Janaki Nagar near Motihari in East Champaran district in North Bihar. It will be spread over an area of 51 hectares (125 acres) at Bahuara-Kathwalia villages on Chakia-Kesariya road in East Champaran district. It will be 850 metres (2,800 ft) in length, 430 metres (1,400 ft) in width and 123 metres (405 ft) in height.
Temple Trust
Since 1987 Mahavir Mandir is managed by a trust composed of 11 members. This trust is Registered under Bihar Hindu Religious Trust Act, 1950. At present the following people are in the trust committee:
- Justice BN Agrawal retd. (President)
- Acharya Kishore Kunal, retd. IPS (Secretary)
- Justice Rajendra Prasad, retd. (Treasurer)
- VS Dubey, retd. IAS
- Ram Balak Mahto, Advocate General
- Ram Sundar Das, former Chief Minister
- Kashi Nath Mishra, former VC
- Justice SN Jha, retd.
- RK Shrivastava, retd. IAS
- Mrs Mahashweta Maharathi, Bodh Gaya
- Mahant Ramashray Das, Ayodhya
See also
References
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- ^ "Virata Ramayana Mandiram, Bihar". Mahavirmandirpatna.org. 2004-01-01. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
- ^ "World's largest temple to be built in India – after Muslims donate the land for Hindu shrine". The Daily Telegraph. 22 May 2015. Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
- ^ "Virata Mandiram in Bihar to overtake Angkor Wat as world's largest Hindu temple and Temple : North, News". India Today. 2013-10-02. Archived from the original on 2014-04-29. Retrieved 2014-04-29.
- ^ "Cambodian government protested in June". indiatoday.co.in. 2015-05-07. Archived from the original on 2015-08-22. Retrieved 2015-05-07.
- ^ "'Bhumi pujan' of largest Hindu temple today". The Times of India. TNN. 2012-06-21. Archived from the original on 2013-06-28. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
- ^ "Angkor Wat temple 'Bhumi-pujan' today". The Times of India. 2012-03-05. Archived from the original on 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2014-04-29.
- ^ "Site Plan". Viraat Ramayan Mandir. Archived from the original on 2014-04-29. Retrieved 2014-04-29.
- ^ Justine Drennan & Phak Seangly (2012-08-10). "Plans for Indian 'Angkor' tweaked, National, Phnom Penh Post". The Phnom Penh Post. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
- ^ "India to build replica of Cambodia's Angkor Wat". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2013-10-25. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
- ^ "Model of world's". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 2013-12-04.
- ^ "Work on world's largest Hindu temple to begin by June-end". The Times of India. 18 May 2015. Archived from the original on 17 September 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
- ^ "Construction of Viraat Ramayan Mandir to begin from June 20".
- ^ "'Donate a sq feet' scheme for Viraat Ramayan Mandir". The Times of India. 2013-05-19. Archived from the original on 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
- ^ "Trust committee members". Temple website. Retrieved 14 February 2024.