Bisrakh
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Temple of Ravan
The Times of India, Oct 22 2015
Meenakshi Sinha
A temple of Ravana
When Ravana goes up in flames across the country, many in Bisrakh village, barely 30 km from Delhi, will sit and mourn at home. Dussehra is never a happy day here. For, villagers here believe this is where Ravana was born. And while the whole country is busy celebrating the victory of good over evil, Bisrakh will quietly mourn the death of their "son". In Bisrakh, Dussehra is observed as `shok divas' (day of mourning). “I've not seen a single effigy of Ravana being burnt here since I came here after my marriage 25 years ago. It's considered inauspicious as he was from this village. Villagers mourn his death every Dussehra,“ said Suman, a housewife in Bisrakh.
It's a village of some 900 families, and on a lazy Octo ber afternoon, one can see that the winds of prosperity have finally touched Bisrakh. There's construction going on. Mud hutments are making way for pucca buildings. And in a dusty , non-descript lane, another building has come up: a temple for Ravana. “The temple will have a life-size idol of Ravana, his family and Lord Shiva,“ said Anil Sharma, the care taker and deputy pries of the temple.
During the nine days o festivities before Dussehra village folk perform puja a the temple that hosts an an cient and one-of-its-kind oc tagonal Shiva linga, which was excavated from a nearby cave. The Shiva linga is said to have been placed by Ravana's father, and boasts the Valmiki Ramayan script embossed across it, said Sharma.
Masons and labourers from Odisha are currently putting finishing touches to the carving of the story of Ravana's birth and childhood on the temple boundary wall.“We're making idols of Ravana's brothers Kubera, Kumbhakarna, his sister Surpanakha and son Meghnad, on the boundary wall of the temple,“ said Surender Das, chief mason from Balasore, Odisha.
Das added that between the five-odd labourers and artisans, they expect to complete building the boundary wall in three months. The temple's main gate is ready .When finished, the 3,000 sqm temple compound will include a dharamshala and a lodge.
