Ayodhya Ram Mandir priests face new changes in conduct amidst water leakage controversy
The management trust behind the temple has introduced new changes to its body of priests, including a fresh dress code, the ban of smartphones near the sanctum sanctorum and new five-hour shift timings
Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, the management behind Ayodhya Ram Mandir, introduce new changes to the temple’s regulations and schedule.
The priests have been assigned a new dress code comprising majorly of the colour yellow. Additionally, Santosh Kumar Tiwari, an assistant priest at the Ayodhya Ram Mandir, has said that according to the principles of the Sanatana Dharma—priests should wear clothes head and hands first, and that the new dress code makes that possible.
“A new dress code has been implemented for the priests at the Ram Mandir. Now the priests, including the chief priest, four assistant priests and 20 trainee priests, will sport safa to be wrapped around the head, chaubandi (sleeved kurta) and dhoti, all in yellow colour,” he said.
The priests at Ayodhya’s Ram temple and multiple temples across India traditionally wear saffron attires. According to Tiwari, some priests at the temple did wear yellow robes but now it had been made mandatory for all to maintain uniformity among them.
Five-hour shifts have also been introduced for the priests. The outline would move as follows: the chief priest would be assisted by four assistant priests while each assistant priest will have five trainee priests following them, whose shifts would start from 3:30pm until 11pm.
In another rule, priests have been barred from carrying their smartphones inside the garbhagriha. Though the motivation behind the restrictions seems to be for security reasons, it comes right after the water seepage controversy of the temple in Ayodhya, when head priest Acharya Saytendra Das said that the heavy rains had led to water leakage in the garbhagriha.
“Water has collected inside,” he said. “It must be found what is lacking in the construction in the part of the temple that has already been built. What is causing the water leakage?”
Nripendra Misra, chairperson of Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, had carried out subsequent investigations and declared that there was no apparent leakage in the garbhagriha. ‘Not a single drop of water’ had dripped from the roof of the garbhagriha or accumulated alongside the idol of Lord Ram.
But some footages of the temple had surfaced showing water leakage within it’s bounds.
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