Delhi to host three-day Ayodhya festival showcasing its culture, heritage

The national capital is all set to host a mega festival themed on Ayodhya's culture and heritage seeking to make people experience essence of the temple town, organisers said on Thursday.

The three-day Ayodhya Parv will begin on February 28 and hosted at the sprawling Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) campus near India Gate.

The event is slated to be inaugurated by Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani and Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, president of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra, set up recently to oversee the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, the organisers said.

Members of the Ram Mandir Trust, including its president, had recently called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence here and invited him to visit Ayodhya for 'bhoomi pujan'.

"At a time when the preparations gaining momentum for construction of a grand Ram temple, after the Supreme Court paved way for the same with its recent landmark decision, the national capital is all set to host a mega festival --- Ayodhya Parv --- to make people experience the real essence of the place that holds immense cultural, historical and intellectual importance in Indian society," the organisers said in a statement.

The festival will also be graced by a host of union ministers and eminent personalities from the field of politics, art, culture and literature, including Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Dharmendra Pradhan, it said.

The three-day festival will bring together many facets of the place -- believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram -- including food, music, art, folk dance to documentary representing the heritage sites and socio-cultural life of Ayodhya, organisers said.

"Through this festival we wish to present a glimpse of that grand Ayodhya to the people and highlight its role and relevance in the evolution of the Indian civilisation," Lallu Singh, Member of Parliament from Ayodhya, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The festival will host 'Sita Rasoi', the representation of a site at the Ramjanmabhoomi complex believed to be the kitchen used by Goddess Sita.

The Sita Rasoi will offer various authentic food belonging to the region and the city of Ayodhya along with a series of performances from noted artistes, including that of folk and classical singer Malini Awasthi, Kathak Dancer Anu Sinha and presentations from Awadhi folk dancers and singers, it said.

The event will also host a series of seminars and discussions on various aspects of Ayodhya and its relevance, including a discourse on 'Ramrajya' philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and an inter-college debate by the students, they said.