Several institutes which come under the ambit of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) have been closely involved in various aspects of the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The temple is set to be consecrated on January 22.
There were also inputs given by the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said on January 21, enumerating their contributions in a press statement.
Surya tilak mechanism
The CSIR-Central Building Research Institute in Roorkee ”majorly contributed towards the structural design of the main temple, designing ‘Surya Tilak’ mechanism, design-vetting of temple foundation, and monitoring the structural health of the main temple,” Mr. Singh said. The ‘surya tilak’ refers to a ray of sunlight made to fall on the idol’s forehead on a designated day, in this case, Ram Navmi, the birthday of Lord Ram that usually falls during March or April.
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The DST-Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru also provided “technical support” to triangulate the sun rays and the idol’s position for the ‘surya tilak’. Optica, a Bengaluru-based company specialising in precision instruments, was involved in manufacturing the lenses and brass tubes. “Gear box and reflective mirrors/lenses have been arranged such that sun rays will be deflected to Garbha Griha (sanctum sanctorum) using well known principles of tracking Sun’s path,” he added.
Seismic safety inputs
Another CSIR institute made “tulips bloom” for Monday’s ceremony. “Tulip does not flower in this season. It grows only in Jammu & Kashmir and few other higher Himalayan regions and that too only in the spring season. The Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur has recently developed an indigenous technology through which tulip could be made available throughout the year, without waiting for its season,” Mr. Singh said.
The CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad gave significant inputs on the design of the temple’s foundation and seismic safety. The main temple building, which is 360 ft long, 235 ft wide, and 161 ft high, was made of sandstone quarried from Bansi Pahadpur, Rajasthan. No cement, iron, or steel was used anywhere in its construction. The structural design of the three-storey temple was designed to be earthquake-resilient and withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8 on the Richter scale, the statement added.
