Balak Ram (idol)

Balak Ram (Sanskrit: बालकराम, lit. 'child Rama', IAST: Bālakarāma), also known as Ram Lalla, is the presiding deity of the Ram Mandir, a prominent Hindu temple located at Ram Janmabhoomi, the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama in Ayodhya, India. Balak Rama is housed in the sacred sanctum sanctorum (garbha gṛha) of the Ram Mandir, a traditional Nagara style temple. The murti (idol) was consecrated in an elaborate Prana pratishtha ceremony on January 22, 2024.
Rama is one of the principal deities of Hinduism and is traditionally considered by Hindus as the seventh avatar, or incarnation, of Vishnu. Before the Ram Mandir's inauguration, the deity was referred to by the previous name of Rām Lallā Virājamān, whose deity was first placed in the complex in 1949. The Ram Mandir location and the building of the mandir is controversial due to the demolition of a mosque formerly located at the place, and is an important subject of political debate in India.
Balak Ram deity represents a five-year-old form of Lord Ram and was prepared by sculptor Arun Yogiraj adhering to the Shilpa Shashtra, a sacred scripture of the sculpting world. On April 17, 2024, the first Ram Navami (Ram's birth festival) after the consecration of Ayodhya's Ram Temple with Balak Ram murti was celebrated by thousands of devotees across India. On this occasion, the forehead of the Ram Lalla idol was anointed with a ray of sunlight, known as Sūrya Tilaka.
According to the Ramayana, Rama was born in Ayodhya. The Masjid-i-Janmasthan (mosque of birthplace) was built by Babur at the site, allegedly destroying a Hindu temple commemorating Ram's birthplace. Historical accounts by some European travellers who visited Ayodhya during the early modern period report that the Hindus believed the mosque and its immediate surroundings to be the exact birthplace of Rama.
In 1949, the idols of "Ram Lalla" were placed in the disputed mosque, with some locals claiming that they had miraculously appeared there. Subsequently, in 1950, the state administration took control of the structure and allowed Hindus to perform worship at the site. Further, in the 1980s, Hindu nationalist groups and political parties launched a campaign to construct the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir ("Rama birthplace temple") at the site. On 6 December 1992, a Hindu nationalist mob destroyed the mosque.
As the dispute continued in courts, a survey was conducted by ASI in 2003 on the 2.77-acre disputed land as ordered by the Allahabad High Court. According to BR Mani, who led this survey, there was evidence that a temple of Nagara style of North India existed at the place before the construction of the mosque. In 2019, the contentious Ayodhya dispute was settled by the Supreme Court of India, which gave the disputed site to Hindus for a temple, and allotted a separate land to the Muslims for a mosque. After the Ayodhya verdict, the construction of the Ram Mandir temple and the choice of the deity of Rama was supervised by Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, a trust that was set up by the Indian government in 2020.
The deity was originally referred to as Rām Lallā Virājamān until the construction of the Ram Mandir. In the Kavitāvali, Tulsidas uses the word Rām Lallā. Lāla or Lallā is an affectionate term for children in Braj Bhasha, the language of Tulsidas. The trust says the deity of the newly constructed Ram Mandir shall be called Bālak Rām as the name was used by Tulsidas in the Rāmacaritamānasa.
The Balak Ram murti (lit. 'idol') represents Rama in the form of a small child. Three Indian sculptors, namely, Ganesh Bhatt, Satyanarayan Pandey, and Arun Yogiraj, were assigned the task of making the idol of the deity by the trust. As per the trust, the characteristics of the deity were supposed to be a 5-year-old Bālaka (lit. 'child') with Mandasmita Vadana (lit. 'cheerful-faced') possessing both Divya (lit. 'divine') and Rājakumāra (lit. 'princely') looks. The murti sculpted by Yogiraj was chosen as the presiding deity. The other two are to be placed within the temple as minor deities. Yogiraj used a three billion-year-old stone that was found at Gujjegowdanapura village in Mysore, Karnataka and sculpted it by adhering strictly to the guidelines of the Shilpa Shastras. The Trust informed that the black-stone is water resistant and non-reacting to the acidic nature of milk when Abhiṣeka (i.e. ritualistic holy bath) is done. In the idol, the deity of Balak Ram is in the Sthānaka Bhangima (i.e. standing pose) on Viśvapadmāsana (i.e. a double row lotus seat). On both sides of the main idol, Hindu Gods and symbols are carved on the Śilātoraṇa (i.e. stone arch). They are 10 avatars of Vishnu, Hanuman, Garuda, Swastik, Om, Śankha, Sudarśana cakra, Kaumodaki Gada, Padma, Brahma, Shiva and Surya. Sage Vedavyasa extolls Rama with the epithet of Mahādhanuḥ (lit. 'the one who wields a great bow') and his bow was said to be dhanuḥ śreṣṭha (lit. 'the best bow') in the Ramopakhyana of Mahabharata. However, in sharp contrast to other idols sculpted in South India, the Balak Ram idol doesn't have any carved weapons. Instead, a golden bow and arrow were fitted to their deity. The bow has been crafted carefully by artisans in Chennai as per the description of Rama's bow kodaṇḍa in the Ramayana.
After consecration, the Hindus refer to the idol in the sanctum sanctorum as mūlavirāṭ mūrti or acala mūrti, while any replica of it used in festivals is called as utsava mūrti (lit. idol for festivals). The trust has clarified that the 9-inch high Ramlalla Virajman idol which was placed in the mosque in 1949 will be henceforth used as the utsava mūrti.
The prana pratishtha (i.e. consecration ceremony) of the deity in the garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) of the Ram Mandir occurred on 22 January 2024. The consecration ceremony included recitation of sacred hymns and mantras to invite the deity into the idol, which was henceforth considered as the resident deity Balak Ram. The Trust has announced that every year on the consecration day as Pratiṣṭha dvādaśi shall be celebrated as per the Hindu calendar. According to that calendar, it falls on the twelfth day of the first fortnight of Pushya month; i.e. Pauṣa Śukla Pakṣa Dvādaśi, which is also celebrated by the Hindus as Kūrma Dvādaśi that is the appearance day of Lord Vishnu in the form of a tortoise.
Since antiquity, it has been a custom to offer and adorn Hindu deities with precious metals and valuable stones. The Balak Ram murti was adorned with 15 kilograms (33 lb) of gold and no less than 18,000 precious stones such as diamonds, Zambian emeralds, and rubies. Various artisans who crafted the ornaments for the deity have referred to Hindu scriptures about Rama such as Valmiki Ramayana, Adhyatma Ramayana, Alavandar Stotra and Ramacharitamanasa.
Hindu deities are offered services to deity such as Ārati and Prasad. From epigraphic records about Hindu temples we get to know that the services offered to deity are also referred as Aṅga Raṅgabhoga (lit. 'corporeal and theatrical offering'). Per Hindu tradition, Aṅgabhoga consists of services to the body of the deity such as abhiṣeka (lit. 'ritualistic holy bath'), gandha (lit. 'perfume'), vastra (lit. 'dressing'), ābharaṇa (lit. 'adornaments'), puṣpa (lit. 'flowers'). Likewise, Raṅgabhoga include music (either vocal or instrumental) and dance performed in front of the deity. The trust has informed that there will be six Āratis offered to the Balak Ram. They are
Every day, the deity is venerated with an aṣtayāma seva (A service for every yāmaḥ; three hours). To offer Raṅgabhoga services, the temple has five halls, namely Raṅgamaṇḍapa, Sabhāmaṇḍapa (transl. Court hall), Nṛtyamaṇḍapa (transl. Hall of dance), Prārthanāmaṇḍapa (transl. Hall of prayer), and Kīrtanāmaṇḍapa (transl. Kirtan hall).
In Hindu temples, dressing the holy deity is considered as a form of devotional service known as Vastrālaṅkaraṇa Seva (lit. 'Dress decoration service'). The deity is dressed on Sunday with pink coloured clothes, on Monday with white, on Tuesday with red, on Wednesday with green, on Thursday with yellow, on Friday with cream, and on Saturday with blue. On the day of consecration, the deity was dressed in a yellow dhoti and a red angavastra. The deity will be dressed in yellow on special occasions.
Ram Mandir was built in the Maru-Gurjara school (also known as Solanki), which is a sub-style of Nagara architecture of Indian temples that exist in Northern, Eastern, and Western India. It is still under construction and will be the third largest upon completion. The Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham in New Jersey are the largest Hindu temples in the world. As per the modified design, it shall have three floors with five domes, and the whole complex spans around 120 acres (49 ha). The Śikhara (trans. main dome) shall be 161 feet (49 m) high. The architect of the Ram Mandir is Chandrakant Sompura, whose father was Prabhakar Sompura, the Somnath temple's architect.
Following the traditional Nagara style temple architecture, the Balak Rama murti (idol) is housed in centrally located sacred sanctum sanctorum (garbha griha) of the Ram Mandir temple in Ayodhya.