HYDERABAD: A professor hailing from the city has been instrumental in 'Surya Tilak' project at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. R Pradeep Kumar, director of CSIR-Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, mentored the fabrication and installation of the opto-mechanical system at Ram Mandir which was crucial to the project.
Under the 'Surya Tilak' project, a mechanism was devised to direct Sun's rays onto the forehead of Ram idol at Ayodhya. "After repeated trials, the Sun rays appeared on Wednesday on the centre of the forehead of the idol at 12noon and continued for 3 to 3.5 minutes," Kumar said. "I feel proud as a Telugu to be one of the members of the team that contributed to the Surya Tilak installation project," he said.
Explaining the project, Kumar said, "This year, the opto-mechanical system was operated from the second floor during the first Shree Ram Navami after the temple was inaugurated. By next year, the construction of the third floor will be completed, and the same optical system will be installed and operated there."
He explained that the position of the Sun in the sky changes every year on Shri Ram Navami day. After detailed calculations, it has been found that the date of Shri Ram Navami repeats every 19 years. The team of CSIR-CBRI, Roorkee, in consultation with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, has developed a mechanism to steer the sunlight from the third floor of the temple to the Garbha Griha.
Before he joined as director of CSIR-CBRI, Roorkee, Kumar was at IIIT Hyderabad in 2002 and started the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre.
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