'...Jyotir Gamaya': All Roads Lead To Ayodhya This Deepavali For A 'Record Making' Deepotsav

Ayodhya is gearing up to host the brightest and another 'record making' Deepavali with the now world famous Deepotsav that sees lakhs of lamps being lit at the Ram Ki Paidi.

And, as is being reported by locals, the traffic, the crowds and the reception the Deepotsav are unprecedented. Hotels, lodges, and even dharamshalas that rarely saw such crowds are said to be choc-a-bloc with people from across the country and world visiting the land of Ram to watch the festivities that have been kickstarted on Monday.

From the 'chai' vendor to the dhabas by the roadside, everyone is seeing such activity after a massive lull of the pandemic season. The city has been hosting various cultural programmes and laser displays at the facade since Monday.

The occasion of Deepavali on Wednesday will see nine lakh lamps being lit at the same time, in an attempt to create a world record of the same.

The Ram Ki Paidi has also been cleaned and beautified as part of the larger vision of creating Ayodhya 2.0. Light and sound shows that depict various stories from the Ramayana are also being held on the banks of the river Sarayu.

This tradition of lighting lamps was started by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in 2017 and is now in its fifth edition. Locals gather in thousands each year to make the Deepotsav a success by helping arrange the lakhs of lamps in neat arrays.

Of the nine lakh lamps that will be lit, one lakh are those made of 'gobar' or cow dung. Also, all villages of Uttar Pradesh are being made part of this effort as five earthen lamps each have been sent from over 90,000 villages of the state.

And as per reports, officials are aiming to light 12 lakh lamps to ensure the nine lakh target of 'lit lamps' isn't compromised on.

Last year, without public in attendance though owing to the pandemic, the Deepotsav had made a record by lighting 6,06,569 diyas, breaking its own record of lighting 4,10,000 diyas that were lit at the Ram Ki Paidi in 2019.

In its inaugural year, it had started with a humble 51,000 ’diyas’ which has now scaled up to 12 lakh.

As reported, 12,000 volunteers have been involved by the city administration and department of tourism for the task of lighting diyas, and 32 other ghats in the city of Ram will also be decorated with lit earthen lamps.

The central attraction of the Deepotsav this year as tweeted by the Ayodhya Development Authority will be the 'Prabhu Shri Ram Darbar'.

In a first, the skyline of the city too will come alive with Ram, as the government has also organised an aerial drone show with 500 drones that will draw various tales from the Ramayan on the city's skyline.

Apart from this event at Ayodhya, all the ghats of various rivers — be it Ganga, Yamuna or others across Uttar Pradesh — are said to be lighting over 1 lakh lamps each.

The lamps that have been procured from the Maati Kala board itself stand at 90 lakh, say sources. These are only the lamps sold by vendors registered with the board and hence, may be just one portion of the lamps sold otherwise.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who visited Ayodhya earlier this week to take account of the preparations for the Deepotsav also took stock of the redevelopment of the Ram Ki Paidi.

Over 10,000 square meters of the Ram Ki Paidi have been revamped and beautified. Based on the work done so far, CM Adityanath has reportedly directed for the beautification of the entire area of the paidi.

In a bid to enable even the poor and ‘resourceless’ to celebrate Diwali, the municipal corporation has distributed lamps and wicks to all poor households.