World’s Largest Ramayan Temple in Bihar

• 12 Jul 2024

Why in News?

Recently, The second phase of construction of the “world’s largest Ramayan temple” began in East Champaran district of Bihar. The construction of the three-storey temple, spread over an area of 3.76 lakh sq.ft., began in June 2023 and is expected to be complete in 2025.

Key Points

• The Viraat Ramayan Mandir will be three times larger than the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
  • Constructed at a cost of Rs 500 crore, it will feature a 33-foot-tall Shivling in the arghya (sanctum sanctorum).
  • There will be 22 sanctum sanctorum for different deities in the temple complex.
• The second phase will include the construction up to the plinth level, which will go up to a height of about 26 feet from the ground level.
• In the third phase, the construction of shikhars (spires) and the final finishing touches of the entire temple will be completed.
  • The temple will have a total of 12 shikhars, with the main shikhar reaching a height of 270 feet.
• The temple's architecture draws inspiration from Cambodia's Angkor Wat, the Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, and the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai.

Angkor Wat Temple

• Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and one of the largest religious monuments in the world.
• It was originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire, it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the 12^th century.
• It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple

• It is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River, Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
• The temple is dedicated to goddess Meenakshi, a form of Shakti/Parvati and her consort Shiva in the form of Sundareswarar.
• It was built by Pandyan Emperor Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I (1190 CE–1205 CE).

Ramanathaswamy Temple

• It is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Shiva located on Rameswaram island in the state of Tamil Nadu.
• It is also one of the twelve Jyotirlinga temples.
• It was built by King Muthuramalinga Sethupathiy.
• The temple was expanded during the 12^th century by the Pandya Dynasty, and its principal shrine’s sanctum was renovated by Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan and his successor Gunaveera Cinkaiariyan, monarch of the Jaffna kingdom.