Special arrangements are underway for the bhumi pujan of the proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya on August 5. As part of the arrangements, soil and water from sacred rivers will be taken to Ayodhya for the bhumi pujan (ground breaking) ceremony of Lord Rama temple at Ayodhya.

Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Sunday afternoon left for Ayodhya carrying soil and sacred water from 2,100 holy sites of Jharkhand. The VHP Jharkhand unit in this connection carried out a drive collecting soil and sacred water from religious places. The 2,100 places included soil from 1,100 sarna sthals too.

VHP Purvanchal Dham Punj Pramukh, Virendra Vimal said, “August 5 will be a historic day for all Hindus. The VHP central committee had asked us to part of this grand ceremony. The VHP Central committee had asked us to collect soil and sacred water from important rivers.”

VHP members and members from Sarna sect had collected soil from religious places. Today the soil and sacred water from 2,100 places were filled in 11 Kalash.

Out of these 11 Kalash nine contain soil and two contain sacred water.

A team headed by VHP area organisational secretary Keshav Raju today took these Kalash to Ayodhya.

Some of the places from where soil was collected include Ulihatu, the birthplace of Dharti Aba Birsa Munda, Ramrekha dham in Gumla district where Lord Rama along with Sita and Laxman spent time of their exile period. Apart from these soil were also collected from temples including Baba Baidyanath (Deoghar), Chinnamastika Temple (Rajrappa), Parasnath, Pahadi Baba Temple, Basukinath (Dumka), Amreshwar Dham (Khunti), Gayatri Peeth, Bhadrakali Temple (Chatra), Vindhyavasini Temple, Shyam Temple, Anjanadham, Deori Temple, Jagannathpur Temple. Soil was also collected from 35 gurdwaras, 12 Jain pilgrimage sites, three Buddhist sites among others.

The sacred water was collected from River Ganga, Koel, Damodar, Swarnrekha, Barakar among others.

Vimal said, “Had there was no lockdown than thousands of VHP members and Hindus would have become part of this grand ceremony.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Ram Temple slated to be built in Ayodhya on August 5.

Amid Covid-19 pandemic and to ensure maximum social distancing at the programme, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra has decided that there will not be more than 200 people, including 150 invitees at the foundation stone laying ceremony.

Former Deputy PM LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar part of temple agitation will also grace the function.

On November 9, 2019, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, permitted the construction of a temple at the site where the Babri Masjid once stood in Ayodhya, thus ending the centuries-long dispute between the Hindus and Muslims.