Ayodhya Ram Mandir: Smiling face of Ram Lalla idol released ahead of consecration ceremony
When the Supreme Court declared in 2019 that Ram Lalla Virajman was the owner of the disputed land in Ayodhya, his then ‘next friend’ Triloki Nath Pandey was delighted. Aged about 75 when the judgment was pronounced, Pandey broke the ‘nirjal’ fast that he had kept for Ram Lalla.
Agarwal, who gave concept of ‘next friend’, represented deity for 10 yrs
The Lord’s second exile has now ended. He will now be a ble to m ove to a majestic temple from the tarpaulin abode. It is the v ictory of Ram Lalla Virajman, but the best thing is that no one has lost,”
Pandey had told this reporter back then.
He succumbed to a cardiac arrest in September 2021.
As Ayodhya gears up for the much-awaited consecration ceremony, people in the temple town are missing Ram Lalla’s ‘next friends’. “Pandey’s happiness was beyond bounds at the time of the Ayodhya verdict. While his face glowed with joy, his eyes were filled with tears,” recalled Mahant Girishpati Tripathi, who is now the mayor of Ayodhya.
Watch: Ram Lalla idol brought inside temple’s sanctum sanctorum, likely to be installed today
It may be noted that under Indian law, a deity is an individual entity, and like a firm or a trust, can contest its own case. The deity (Ram Lalla Virajman) is a perpetual minor and needs a ‘next friend’ to represent itself in court.
The concept of ‘next friend’ was propounded by Deoki Nandan Agarwal, an advocate who later became a judge in Allahabad high court. After his retirement, he extensively researched documents and filed a petition in Allahabad HC in 1989, claiming the land belonged to Ram Lalla and he was his ‘next friend’. A resident of the Sangam city, Agarwal continued to represent Ram Lalla till 1996.
After Agarwal, historian Thakur Prasad Verma (1996-2009), who worked as a professor at Banaras Hindu University, represented the infant God in courts. He also used his knowledge of history and archaeology to push the case. Later, because of his age and failing health, he withdrew in 2008 and Triloki Nath Pandey, a VHP office-bearer, took over as ‘next friend’ of Ram Lalla. The consecration ceremony is both a proud and nostalgic moment for the family members of the ‘next friends’.
“I am short of words. It’s very difficult to describe what my father would have felt if he was here with me,” said Agarwal’s daughter Minu Agarwal who has travelled all the way from Birmingham to participate in the ceremony. She also recalled how the ruling government arrested her father despite his age and medical condition. “My father said that arresting someone after 6 pm and without a warrant was illegal, but the police paid no heed to his words despite him being a retired judge of the HC,” she told reporters. Thakur Prasad Verma’s son Siddharth recalled how his father had also read out the 12th century Shilapatta (plaque) in Nagari script and Sanskrit language that was used to establish that the place belonged to Avatar of Vishnu who killed Bali and Ravan. “He had documented the history of Ayodhya from Vedic to present times,” he said, adding that the temple was more than just a cause for his father. Unfortunately, he has not been invited to the ceremony.
Pandey’s son Amit – who works as a software engineer in Gurgaon – recalled that nothing else was important for his father. “He was never tired or unwell if anything related to the Ram temple was to be addressed. Even birth and death or a wedding in the family was second to the cause of Ram Lalla for him,” he said, informing that his mother Kimla Devi has been invited to Ayodhya and has already reached the temple town to attend the ceremony. He added that the best thing about his father’s equation with Ram Lalla was that he was always positive and hopeful. “When people asked him about the progress of the case, he always said that I know the outcome. The judgment is a matter of time,” said Amit.