Largest Ram temple to be built in Bihar

VARANASI: Construction of the largest Hindu temple of Lord Rama is in the offing in Bihar. "The bhoomi pujan for the temple of Lord Rama has already been performed on March 4 and the construction work will begin very soon," said Kishore Kunal, the president of Bihar Rajya Dharmik Nyas Board and secretary of Mahavir Mandir Trust, while talking to media persons in the city on Friday.
The Mahavir Mandir Trust, Patna has planned to construct the replica of Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia near Hajipur (Bihar). The site, as believed, is hallowed by the holy feet of Lord Rama who, along with his younger brother Laxman and the sage Vishvamitra, had been warmly received by King Sumati of Vaishali kingdom when they were on their way to Janakpur after crossing the Ganga. Vaishali kingdom is also known as the first republic of the world.
Kunal said it would be the largest Hindu temple and the constructed area of the main temple would be more than one lakh square ft. Apart from Ram and Sita, the temple will house many other deities like Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Parvati, Ganesh, Surya, Vishnu and the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
According to him, the size of the temple will be 360 ft long, 360 ft wide and 270 ft tall to make it the largest Hindu temple with the tallest 'shikhar' (spire) in the world. It will follow the architectural design of the Angkor Wat Temple and will have five layers and devotees will have to walk a long way in these five layers before reaching the fifth layer which will house the presiding deity, Bhagavan Rama, at a height of 72 ft. from the ground floor.
There will be 21 sanctum sanctorum and 21 shikhars in the temple. It will be a project of over Rs 200 crore and is expected to be completed in the next 10 years. For the old and infirm devotees, there will be escalators to assist them to reach the main temple of Ram. He said Piyush Sompura of the famous Sompura house of Ahmedabad known as expert on temple architecture had made the structural design of the temple.
He said the celebrated temple trust of Patna Hanuman Mandir had spent almost Rs 100 crore on the establishment of charitable institutions like cancer hospital and a paediatric hospital. The trust has opened a corpus fund for this project in the name of Viraat Angkor Wat Ram Mandir in the main branch of Allahabad Bank, Patna. He said the financial assistance would be received from all parts of the country and abroad.