Over 15 lakh oil lamps were lit and kept burning for 45 minutes as Ayodhya set a new Guinness World Record for lighting oil lamps as part of the Diwali celebration.
“We had set a target to light 15 lakh diyas at one place to break the Guinness World Record and we have achieved that target,” Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said.
Last year, the city witnessed a record by lighting over nine lakh diyas.
Yogi said over 15 lakh diyas were lit at Ram ki Pauri, at the banks of river Saryu. “In totality, over 17 lakh amps were lit across Ayodhya where people lit oil lamps at temples and at their shops as a mark of Diwali celebration.
Senior government official Nitish Kumar said that over 22,000 volunteers, majority of them college students, worked tirelessly to ensure that the lamps burnt for the prescribed time so that the Guinness record could be broken.
The volunteers vouch that it was a challenge for them to ensure that these lamps glowed for at least 45 minutes as this is mandatory for breaking the Guinness record.
“It was a tough job. First, we drew the pattern with chalk and then placed diyas and filled them with oil. It was a back-breaking exercise but I loved it,” said Shruti Sinha, an undergraduate student.
Another student, Anita Chauhan, said: “We have been working for the last three days and have arranged the diyas in a systematic manner. Training was given to us as to how to light the diyas without disturbing symmetry.”
She said the big challenge was to ensure that these lamps glowed for at least 45 minutes as this was mandatory for breaking the Guinness record. “We ensured that oil was put continuously in the lamps so that they did not extinguish,” Anita said.
Earlier, the scene of Treta Yuga came back to life again on Sunday when ‘Lord Ram’, along with ‘Sita’ and ‘Laxman’, touched the grounds on the Pushpak Viman after completing 14 years of exile. People waited with bated breath to welcome ‘Lord Ram’ with the same zeal, devotion, and enthusiasm that the city would have witnessed when Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravan.
Chants of 'Jai Shri Ram' kept on reverberating in the atmosphere as the Deepotsav started at its scheduled time.