Ram Mandir architecture:
design, stone and engineering

The temple is a three-storey stone structure in the Nagara style, on a much larger scale than most historic Nagara temples.

Table: Ram Mandir dimensions and materials (temple trust, Tata Consulting Engineers and L&T published accounts)

Height to the main spire

161 ft

Carved pillars

392

Consecration (Pran Pratishtha)

22 Jan 2024

Flag hoisted on the completed spire

25 Nov 2025

The Ram Mandir follows the Nagara style of north India: a sanctum (garbhagriha) under a curved shikhara, approached along an east–west axis through a chain of halls, each roofed with its own smaller spire or dome. Within Nagara, it belongs to the Maru-Gurjara or Chaulukya tradition of Gujarat and Rajasthan, known for intricately carved pillars, layered spires and dense sculptural friezes, the lineage of temples such as Modhera's Sun Temple and the Dilwara temples at Mount Abu. (Our guide to Indian temple architecture explains the style in detail.)

The chief architect is Chandrakant Sompura of Ahmedabad, with his sons Nikhil and Ashish. The Sompuras are a hereditary community of temple builders; Chandrakant's grandfather Prabhashankar Sompura designed the rebuilt Somnath temple in the 1950s. The family's first design for Ayodhya dates from the late 1980s and was enlarged before construction began, adding floors and halls¹.

The superstructure is built of pink Bansi Paharpur sandstone from Bharatpur district in Rajasthan, a fine-grained stone long quarried for buildings in north India. Tata Consulting Engineers, the project's management and design consultant, describes columns, pillars, walls, beams, slabs and mandapas all crafted from it, with the stones joined by copper pins and clamps².

The decision to avoid steel reinforcement in the stone structure is about longevity. Steel bars embedded in stone or concrete can rust; rust expands, and the expansion cracks the material around it. Traditional Indian temples used interlocking joints, gravity and non-ferrous or protected metal cramps instead, which is part of why buildings such as the Chola temples still stand after a thousand years. A granite plinth separates the sandstone from ground moisture.

The hardest engineering problem was underground. Investigations found loose, sandy soil at the site, and the original plan for piled foundations raised concerns. Tata Consulting Engineers proposed replacing the weak soil with an engineered fill of roller-compacted concrete (RCC): a stiff, low-water concrete spread and compacted with rollers, like a dam, built up in layers to a depth of about 12 to 14 metres⁴. Above it sits a concrete raft and then the granite plinth. L&T, the construction contractor, describes the logistics of placing the fill and stone at this scale³.

The Surya Tilak is an optical system that places a spot of sunlight on the forehead of the idol of Ram Lalla at noon on Ram Navami, the festival marking Ram's birth. It was designed by the CSIR-Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) in Roorkee, with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru advising on the optics, and fabricated by a Bengaluru optics company⁵⁷.

According to the project scientists, the system has four mirrors and four lenses mounted in brass pipes whose inner surfaces are blackened to stop stray reflections; it uses no electricity or batteries⁵. Because Ram Navami follows the lunar calendar, its date in the solar calendar shifts from year to year, so a tilt mechanism adjusts the first mirror for the sun's position, and the calculations repeat on a 19-year cycle⁶. On Ram Navami in April 2024, the first time it was used, the light reached the idol at about 12:16 pm and stayed for about six minutes. The designers' main limitation is weather: on a cloudy day, there is no tilak.

1. 1980s

   First design

   The Sompura family prepares the original Nagara design.

2. Nov 2019

   Supreme Court judgment

   The court's ruling in the long-running title dispute allows a temple to be built on the site⁹.

3. Aug 2020

   Foundation ceremony

   Construction formally begins; engineering studies of the foundation follow.

4. 2020–2022

   Foundation

   Roller-compacted concrete fill and granite plinth are placed.

5. 22 Jan 2024

   Pran Pratishtha

   The idol is consecrated; upper floors are still under construction.

6. 17 Apr 2024

   First Surya Tilak

   Sunlight reaches the idol's forehead at noon on Ram Navami.

7. 25 Nov 2025

   Completion

   A flag is hoisted on the completed main spire⁸.

The site was the subject of one of India's longest legal and political disputes, and its history is contested. This post covers the building's design and engineering; for the legal history, the Supreme Court's 2019 judgment is the primary source⁹.

Dimensions, materials and design history come from the temple trust and published accounts by Tata Consulting Engineers and L&T; the Surya Tilak description from CSIR-CBRI's project scientists as reported in April 2024; dates from contemporary reporting. Some figures differ slightly between sources (for example, the depth of the engineered fill), and we give ranges where they do. Photographs are official images from the Prime Minister's Office, released under the Government Open Data Licence, India. Last reviewed October 2026.