The Air India Express flight circled interminably in the air above Ayodhya like an amnesiac Jatayu or a Pushpaka Vimana that had lost its bearings. The flight was already late by 50 minutes and we wondered if we’d run out of fuel, when the air hostess announced, “due to some technical difficulty, the flight might be redirected to Jaipur.” The passengers let out a collective groan and clicked their tongues in disapproval.
As the murmurs died down, someone from the back yelled, ‘Jai Sri Ram!’ There was stunned silence before it was met with an enthusiastic roar from others, ‘Jai Jai Sri Ram.’ This went on for a bit. Then out of the blue, the air hostess’ voice crackled on the radio. “We have good news. We’re landing in Ayodhya in five minutes!” The passengers let out a loud cheer that could have drowned out the ruckus students made on the last day of school before vacation. Call it divine intervention or pure luck, but the chants were still resounding as the wheels hit the tarmac. Welcome to Ayodhya!
After the pran pratishtha of Lord Ram’s idol and the formal opening of the grand Ram Janmabhoomi Temple on January 22, all roads and flight paths seem headed to Ayodhya. The holy city has received a mega tourism face-lift with a brand new Ayodhya Dham Railway Station and Maharishi Valmiki International Airport. The new state-of-the-art airport is named after the sage Valmiki, the author of the great epic, Ramayana.
Designed by architects Vipul B Varshneya and Harsh Varshneya of Sthapati, the airport’s architecture is grand, a blend of traditional ethos and modern facilities, with gigantic pillars, lofty ceilings, ornate toran dwars (carved doorways) and stepped shikharas, with temple style inscriptions. The pastel melon hue was a recurrent theme in Ayodhya, as we soon discovered. Artworks depicting the story of Lord Rama adorned the hall and public areas. The lone cab counter inside the airport patiently attended to passengers. Those who had pre-arranged an airport pick-up breezed out. Cabs charge around ₹1,500 from the airport to the heart of the city.
The arterial pathways from Lata Mangeshkar Chowk to Ayodhya Dham, Dharam Path and Ram Path have been widened and shop fronts given a uniform façade similar to the heritage redevelopment in Amritsar, Jaipur and Old Delhi. From rooftops to roadside stalls, everywhere Lord Ram pennants and the familiar flash of saffron waved in the air. A trip to the holy city must customarily begin with a visit to Hanuman Garhi, a fortified temple complex dedicated to Lord Hanuman, believed to be the protector of Ayodhya. Shops are stacked with sweets like laddus, pedas and the Ayodhya special, khurchan malai peda, besides religious paraphernalia. Little kids offer to print Jai Sri Ram tilaks on the forehead of visitors for a small fee. Our tilaks in place, we walked up the flight of 76 steps to the Hanuman Temple bedecked with flowers. Negotiating the streets was like wading through a sea of humanity. Months after the opening, Ayodhya still sees around two lakh visitors a day and the wave does not seem to abate anytime soon.
On the short walk to Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, we met a bunch of boys who had cycled all the way from Assam. Another group had biked in from Bengal. From Andhra to Karnataka and Haridwar to Himachal, we encountered people from every corner of India. Some pilgrims were doing dandavat (ritual prostration), as they crawled forward to the shrine. Others came dressed like characters from the Ramayana. Security was tight with lots of police personnel and barricades everywhere, though the queues were orderly. Lockers are available for visitors to deposit phones, shoes and personal belongings before they amble to the main shrine. The all too familiar chants of, ‘Jai Sri Ram,’ got louder. The idol of Ram Lalla was indeed stunning. The cops and temple staff had to keep the crowd moving to avoid a pile-up, as they stood mesmerised by the idol’s beauty. The entire operation of Ram Mandir darshan took under two hours.
E-buses ply locally, though the best way to get around the crowded by-lanes is e-rickshaws. Not far from the Ram Temple, Dashrath Bhawan is regarded as the original residence of Lord Ram’s father King Dashrath while Kanak Bhawan was a wedding gift to Sita by Queen Kaikeyi after her marriage to Lord Ram. There are shrines dedicated to Ram’s kuldevi (family deity) Devkali and Sita’s kuldevi Chhoti Devkali. Another temple commemorates Bharat Milap or Ram’s reunion with his brother Bharat. Nageshwar Nath is an ancient Shiva temple believed to have been built by Kush, Lord Ram’s son. Legend has it that Kush once lost his armlet while taking a bath in the River Sarayu and it was retrieved by a Nag-Kanya (serpent maiden) who fell in love with him. Since she was a devotee of Shiva, Kush built this shrine for her. It was the only temple to survive when Ayodhya was abandoned until the time of King Vikramaditya. While the rest of the city was in ruin and covered in dense forest, King Vikramaditya recognised the sacred city by this temple.
The Sarayu riverfront wears a new look. The most decorated spot is Ram ki Paidi, where Lord Ram took his ritual bath in the Sarayu. A dip before sunrise here is equivalent to the merit of visiting all other tirthas. It holds the Guinness World Record for lighting the largest number of diyas (oil lamps) at the Ayodhya Deepotsav during Diwali. Every evening at 5:45 pm, visitors can witness the beautiful sarayu aarti ritual at Naya Ghat. An army of safai mitras or cleaning staff work round the clock to keep the ghats and the city clean. Evenings are also great for a bite of bun maska and tea at Bhanu Tea Stall and Gabbar’s Pakode. At Ayodhya Haat, the River Sarayu has been diverted through newly made ghats with pre-fabricated luxury cottages on one side and an upcoming food court on the other. The Jatayu Cruise on the River Sarayu is a unique riverine exploration of Ayodhya. The 45 feet long two-storeyed, air-conditioned cruise ship can accommodate 70 passengers and does four two-hour round trips a day (4.30 am, 11 am, 4 pm and 6 pm — costing ₹300 per person), covering 18 km from Naya Ghat to Guptar Ghat and back. Another cruise service called Garud, will be launched soon.
Located at the banks of the Sarayu or Ghagra near Ayodhya Cantonment, Guptar Ghat is a corruption of Gopratar Ghat. According to sage Vyasa, at the end of his leela or time on earth, Lord Ram became antardhyan (immersed) in the River Sarayu, along with his subjects and all living creatures. Animals, birds, bugs, insects — the sacred site that provides salvation to all was called Gopratar Ghat — explained priest Pramod Tiwary. The temples here are 550 years old and boats offer a leisurely jaunt along the river. The ghats are lit up at night and there are numerous food stalls serving tea, dal vada and the local staple, bati-chokha.
While in Ayodhya, don’t miss the kulhad dahi jalebi at Maurya Mishthan Bhandar, Ramji’s Samosa near Avadh University, Mahaveer ki Tikiya near Rikabganj, Moti Samosa in Faizabad and Madhur Sweets at Chowk. There’s also Lucknowi-style biryani, galouti kebab and ulte tawe ka paratha at Have More Kitchen. Yes, you heard it right. Interestingly, while Ayodhya Dham is pure vegetarian, its twin city Faizabad is non-vegetarian with most hotels like Krinoscco, Shane Avadh, Krishna Palace serving both veg and non-veg.
Kohinoor Palace, the only heritage hotel in town, is a 150-year-old haveli locally known as Lal Kothi though it’s currently white. It was the residence of freedom fighter Acharya Narendra Dev — he has a university and a railway station named after him. Most of the small guesthouses and lodges are concentrated in the holy town and due to their proximity to the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, command a high price despite having tiny rooms and limited facilities. The larger hotels are in Ayodhya’s twin city, Faizabad (Ayodhya Cantonment) 6 km away, or off the NH-27 bypass and across the Sarayu Bridge. Park Inn by Radisson is the best pick of the lot. Several new hotels are on the anvil, from ITC, Hyatt, Oberoi, Marriott, Sarovar, Wyndham, Trident, Orchid to a 100-room Vivanta by Taj, a 120-room Ginger and a Radisson coming across the River Sarayu. The Sarayu Project, a 7-star real estate property, is being developed by The House of Abhinandan Lodha; Amitabh Bachchan has picked up a 10,000 sq ft plot there. Over 34 major hotels are slated for completion in the next three to four years, including mega tourism projects like O Rama Hotels & Resorts, Solitaire Ayodhya, Shri Amya Hotel and Vishranti Grah. OYO has launched a hundred homestays and plans to open 400 new hotels soon. There’s a hotel for every budget.
Ayodhya is a city in transformation. There are 51 ghats and over 5,000 shrines, both big and small, with many under renovation. Rama’s exile route from Ayodhya across the River Tamsa to Sringverpur, Prayag, Chitrakoot and beyond is being developed into the Sri Ram Van Gaman Path tourist trail. In a way, the construction of the Ram Temple has been a second homecoming of sorts for Lord Ram.
The recent celebration of Ram Navami with the auspicious surya tilak or ray of light anointing Lord Ram’s forehead on his birthday, only underlines how Ayodhya has risen from relative obscurity to regain its exalted status as one of the saptapuris or seven holiest cities in Hinduism. Perhaps, it was inevitable. After all, Ayodhya is derived from Sanskrit for, ‘that which cannot be vanquished.’
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