Ever since the names of those invited for the grand inauguration of Ram temple at Ayodhya on 22nd January, 2024 have come out, names of those who are left out gather bigger storm. The humongous faux-pas of openly declaring to have requested the founding architects of Ram Mandir, L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to not attend the ceremony has left everyone scratching their heads. Now, it is revealed that Laxman of iconic TV serial “Ramayana”, Sunil Lahri is notinvited either.
Sunil “Laxman” Lahri’s exclusion from the list of invitees is glaring in the context of the actors who performed the character of Ram and Sita, Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia respectively, are invited. “Maybe they think that Laxman’s character is not that important”, Sunil wryly quipped talking to a section of media.
Ram is considered a reincarnation of Vishnu, the protector of holy trinity of Hinduism along with Shiva, the Destructor and Brahma, the Creator. While Laxman, a reincarnation of Sheshnag, the Holy Snake King according to Hindu belief and mythology, is no match to Ram’s divinity in the Hindu pantheon, Hindus across the world have been lovingly venerating Ram, Laxman and Janaki together. In popular religious culture, deep seated in an average Hindu mind, Ram, Laxman and Sita ( called Janaki, being daughter of Janak) are inseparable entity. Laxman’s devotion to his elder brother Ram is cited even today, in every Hindu houshold as an ideal conduct of a brother. In Ramayana, Laxman choses to accompany his brother in the forest, when his father was compelled to banish Ram from the capital for 14 years, due to a promise given to Ram’s step mother.
Ramayan, the extremely popular TV serial made by Ramanand Sagar in the late 80s was a huge success across India. There have been more attempts at making Ramayan on TV, but none has matched the charisma of the original one.
Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Akshay Kumar, Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani, Rohit Shetty, Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal and Dhanush are invited for the occasion.
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