A 10-day atonement and purification ritual undertaken at the Ram temple following the alleged theft of devotees’ offerings concluded on Friday evening with a purnahuti (final offering) ceremony, temple trustee Mahant Dinendra Das said.
The ritual, which began on July 15, was organised by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust after the embezzlement allegations came to light.
Trust office-bearers had said the ceremony was aimed at restoring the sanctity of the temple premises through prescribed religious rites and seeking forgiveness for the lapse.
Das said on Saturday that the concluding purnahuti included a havan and special worship in the temple’s yagyashala under the guidance of Vedic scholars.
Trustee Mahant Dinendra Das and trustee Krishna Mohan participated as yajmans and offered ahutis. A community feast was organised on the occasion, during which local Brahmins were served food.
According to Das, around 70 Vedic acharyas from Ayodhya and other places participated in the 10-day ritual. They performed Vedic chanting, havan, Rudrabhishek and Ramarcha worship, while the chief priest of Ram Lalla recited the Vishnu Sahasranama throughout the period.
He said the ritual was conducted on the instructions of the Trust’s treasurer, Swami Govind Dev Giri, in accordance with religious traditions followed after incidents such as theft or ritual impurity to restore the temple’s sanctity.
The ceremony comes amid an ongoing controversy over the theft of offerings from the Ram temple, which led to a government-ordered Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe and criminal proceedings. Several arrests have been made in the case, and investigations are underway.
