Ayodhya Ram temple chief priest complains about water seepage, lack of drainage in sanctum sanctorum

A complaint of water seepage has been raised by the priests of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, after the town witnessed pre-monsoon showers recently. Priests in the the temple have also complained of the lack of a drainage system in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, making the ritual bathing of the deity a difficult task.

Confirming reports of the seepage in the portion of the temple just before the garbh greha (sanctum sanctorum), the temple’s chief priest, Mahant Satyendra Das told The Hindu that when priests reached the temple after the rain during the weekend, they found it flooded with rainwater.

“We got it cleaned. The seepage was in the part where devotees stand. We are concerned that if it rains in the day, the devotees will be affected. The matter was taken to the temple construction committee and they have assured us that the seepage problem will be fixed in a couple of days,” he said.

Speaking about the unavailability of drainage in the sanctum sanctorum, Mr. Das said that the temple committee — Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra (SRJTK) — built a gigantic structure with breathtaking art but failed to understand the basic needs of the temple.

“There is no drainage available inside the sanctum sanctorum due to which it has become difficult to bathe the deity in milk and water. The priests are spending a lot of time on cleaning the sanctum. This happened because the temple construction committee never consulted the priests on how the temple should be built,” he added.

He further said that the committee should have visited some temples and spoken to priests.

Commenting on the issues raised by Mr. Das, Chairman of SRJTK, Nripendra Misra, who was in Ayodhya on Monday said that he saw the rainwater dripping from the first floor of the temple. This was to be expected because the guru mandap is exposed to sky, he said.

“With the construction of the second floor and completion of shikhar (tower), this opening will get covered. I also saw some seepage from the conduit as the work on the first floor is in progress. On completion, the conduit will be closed,” Mr. Misra said.

He said all the mandaps have measured slope for clearance of water and the water in sanctum sanctorum is manually absorbed.

“There is no design or construction issue. The mandaps which are open may get rainwater, a matter which was debated but the decision was to keep it open as per Nagar architectural norms,” he said.