Sun rays on idol: CSIR in row over Ram temple project

India’s premier science research body CSIR on Monday courted a controversy after the council tweeted that a team of scientists from one of its laboratories demonstrated how sun’s rays will fall on the Ramlala’s head in Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir on the day of Ram Navami in 2024.

While scientists defended the closely guarded project because of engineering challenges, Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Mahua Moitra said she was approached by a senior scientist who said she was ashamed to be a part of the Indian scientific community. “CSIR is among the world’s largest publicly funded R&D organisations. Our tax money is being used for this. Shameful. New low everyday,” she tweeted.

Scientists, however, said the project, being executed by the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, along with Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, involved complicated astronomical calculations and multiple opto-mechanical engineering challenges.

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“It’s a tricky issue as we follow a lunar calendar, but would have to rely on the solar calendar to know the sun’s position on a particular day of the year. Once the positions are known, a mechanical system involving gears would be used to ensure that sunlight falls on a set of mirrors and reflects on the forehead of the deity,” Shekhar Mande, former director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, told DH.

Since the sun’s position can be calculated for a given time every year for thousands of years and the lunar calendar has a 19-year cycle, the position of the mirrors needs to be adjusted every year for 19 years. In the 20th year, the mirrors come back to the original position for the next cycle.

A presentation of the ambitious project was recently made before the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust that monitors the construction of the temple. The trust has set Dec 2023 as the deadline for completion of the ground floor, after which devotees would be allowed entry.

CSIR director general N Kalaisalvi didn’t respond to DH queries on the project. But sources said the project has commenced.