Why in News?

• Recently, The second phase of construction of the “world’s largest Ramayan temple” began in East Champaran district of Bihar.
• The construction of the three-storey temple, spread over an area of 3.76 lakh sq.ft., began in June 2023 and is expected to be complete in 2025.

Key Points:-

=> The Viraat Ramayan Mandir will be three times larger than the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

=> Constructed at a cost of Rs 500 crore, it will feature a 33-foot-tall Shivling in the arghya (sanctum sanctorum).

=> There will be 22 sanctum sanctorum for different deities in the temple complex.

=> The second phase will include the construction up to the plinth level, which will go up to a height of about 26 feet from the ground level.

=> In the third phase, the construction of shikhars (spires) and the final finishing touches of the entire temple will be completed.

=> The temple will have a total of 12 shikhars, with the main shikhar reaching a height of 270 feet.

=> The temple's architecture draws inspiration from Cambodia's Angkor Wat, the Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, and the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai.

Angkor Wat Temple:-

• Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and one of the largest religious monuments in the world.
• It was originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire, it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the 12th century.
• It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple:-

• It is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River, Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
• The temple is dedicated to goddess Meenakshi, a form of Shakti/Parvati and her consort Shiva in the form of Sundareswarar.
• It was built by Pandyan Emperor Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I (1190 CE–1205 CE).

Ramanathaswamy Temple:-

• It is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Shiva located on Rameswaram island in the state of Tamil Nadu.
• It is also one of the twelve Jyotirlinga temples.
• It was built by King Muthuramalinga Sethupathiy.
• The temple was expanded during the 12th century by the Pandya Dynasty, and its principal shrine’s sanctum was renovated by Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan and his successor Gunaveera Cinkaiariyan, monarch of the Jaffna kingdom.