Former IAS officer Subramanian Lakshminarayanan and his wife Saraswathy gifted Ramcharitmanas made of gold, silver, and copper worth Rs. 5 crore to the Ram Mandir, Ayodhya as preparations for Ram Navami begin. It weighs around 147 kg and consists of 522 gold-plated pages with 10,902 verses.
The Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has numerous gilded gifts and offerings from the devotees. A significant addition was recently made by a former IAS officer, Subramanian Lakshminarayanan and his wife Saraswathy. The Ramcharitmas made of gold, silver, and copper have been given to the Temple trust by the couple on the first day of Chaitra Navratri and is estimated to cost around Rs. 4.5 to 5 crores.
The golden Tulsi Ramayana weighs around 147 kg with copper used as the base metal. It consists of 522 gold-plated pages with each containing 10,902 verses coated with 24-carat gold. As per reports, Subramanian Lakshminarayanan hails from Madhya Pradesh and has sworn to donate all his life savings to Ram Lalla.
Prakash Gupta, in charge of Ram Temple Trust Camp's office, said as quoted by TOI, "The retired bureaucrat is an ardent follower of lord Vishnu and he has donated all the savings for this cause.”
The gold-plated Manas was packaged in different bundles for easy transport and convenience and was carried to the temple for assembly. Lakshminarayanan's wife, Saraswathy, played a pivotal role in shaping the Manas and its gilded pages.
Each bundle had 20-25 pages in separate packages and was brought to Ayodhya, where the binding of the pages to the book was done. The pages were carved using ultraviolet printing technology on the gold metal sheets.
The epic was created by Chennai-based jewellers, who also provided a unique stand to place it before reading. The entire project took eight months to research and execute flawlessly. The original Awadhi poem had a total of 10,902 verses making it a daunting task to achieve, yet the intense devotion and dedication of the professionals made it possible.
The worshippers will have the opportunity to see the gold Manas at the temple, and the UP State Road Transport Corporation has planned to deploy extra buses for devotees within the Awadh region during the Navratri.
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