Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir (Ram Mandir)

Ayodhya’s Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir is one of the most consequential Hindu temples built in modern India, consecrated in January 2024 on a site Vaishnava tradition, following the Ramayana, identifies as the birthplace of Rama, the seventh avatara of Vishnu. The temple enshrines Ram Lalla, worshipped in the form of Rama as a young child.

The site carries a well-documented and contested modern history. A mosque, the Babri Masjid, had stood there since 1528; it was demolished on 6 December 1992 during a rally organized by Hindu nationalist groups, an event that triggered serious communal violence across India. Decades of litigation over the site culminated in a November 2019 Supreme Court of India verdict that awarded the disputed land to a Hindu trust for the construction of a temple, while directing that alternative land be provided elsewhere for a mosque. Construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony on 5 August 2020, and the completed sanctum was consecrated in a Pran Pratishtha ceremony on 22 January 2024, with the temple opening to the public the following day.

Built in the Nagara style with Maru-Gurjara architectural influences by the Ahmedabad-based Sompura family of temple architects — the same lineage associated with temples such as Somnath — the structure measures roughly 110 meters long, 72 meters wide, and 49 meters high on a 1.1-hectare site. Its scale of pilgrimage has been immense from the outset: over half a million visitors came on the opening day alone, with roughly 2.4 million recorded within the first twelve days, and annual footfall now commonly estimated around 50 million, making it, alongside the older Kashi Vishwanath and Hanumangarhi shrines nearby, one of the central anchors of Ayodhya’s identity as a major Vaishnava pilgrimage city today.

The complex was built to handle large crowds by design: the temple committee has described a capacity to manage around 70,000 visitors at a time, supported by a pilgrim facility centre for roughly 25,000 people offering medical care and locker services, along with ramps and lifts for elderly and differently-abled visitors. The site also includes a Ram Katha Museum devoted to the story and history of the temple movement.