New Delhi: Acharya Satyendra Das, the head priest of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and a vocal critic of the politicisation of the Hindu deity, died on February 12 at the age of 86. Das, who oversaw puja and other rituals for the idol of Ram Lalla or infant Ram, for over three decades, had recently suffered a brain stroke and was admitted to the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, where he breathed his last.
Easily recognisable by his thick, flowing white beard which complemented his saffron robes, Das was staunchly opposed to the politics behind the Vishwa Hindu Parishad-backed Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the late 1980-90s. He believed that it was a ploy to launch the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power. Das was a devout Hindu, a scholar and committed to the idea of a Ram temple, at what he also believed was the deity’s birthplace, but without polarising the society on communal grounds.
He held that the decades-long issue could be resolved peacefully only through the judiciary and that any political intervention was unwarranted and could worsen communal strife in the country. Amid the turbulence of majoritarian Hindutva politics, of which the twin towns of Ayodhya-Faizabad became the epicentre, Das was a voice of reason and calm.
Despite holding a ceremonially important post as the main pujari entrusted with the worship of Ram, he lived a low-key life, fulfilling the duties assigned to him by the administration, without getting embroiled in any controversies. He stood in contrast to the array of politically-driven sadhus and priests groomed by the VHP and its affiliates in the temple town and was never accused of any inflammatory speech or divisive comments. His non-controversial aura also made him fairly accessible and he was always willing to share his views on anything related to Ram, the temple movement and the legal battle or the politics around it, which he derided.
Also read: Ayodhya Ram Temple’s Head Priest Flags Leaky Roof
Several top BJP leaders took to social media to express grief over his passing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Das was an “expert in religious rituals and scriptures,” and dedicated his “entire life to the service of Lord Shri Ram.” Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said Das’s demise was an “irreparable loss to the spiritual world.” UP’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, once a VHP activist who participated in the Ram temple movement, said Das’s death was “extremely sad and painful.” “[His] contribution from the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement to the re-establishment of Shri Ram Lalla is unforgettable which will always inspire the generations to come,” said Maurya.
Das’s outspoken-nature often pitted him against the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed VHP, who he felt were milking the issue of Ram to gain political power. “All the agitations organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for the Ram temple have been only to bring the BJP to power, and nothing else,” he told The Wire in 2019, when the VHP had organised a Dharma Sabha in Ayodhya to mobilise support apply pressure on the courts for the construction of a Ram temple. Das skipped that event, held a few months ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Das had the distinction of conducting prayers for Ram Lalla in three different settings, each marking a significant stage in the political history of the country. He took over as the government-appointed head priest of the makeshift temple operating from under the dome of the Babri Masjid on March 1, 1992. The idol of Ram Lalla, infant Ram, was surreptitiously slipped inside the Mughal-era mosque on the intervening night of December 22-23, 1949, forever changing the course of the temple-mosque dispute.
Abhiram Das, a sadhu of the Nirmohi Akhara, who was among those who planted the idol of an infant Ram, would later become Satyendra Das’s guru. Das conducted puja of the idol inside the mosque from March 1 to December 6, 1992, when the Babri Masjid was razed to the ground by a mob of karsevaks who had assembled there on the call of senior BJP and VHP leaders.
Das was present in the mosque when the demolition was taking place. “At around 11 am, the karsevak pramukh asked me to give him coconut and some cloth. “We want to carry out a puja,” he said,” Das told author Scharada Dubey, who recorded this in her book Portraits from Ayodhya. He recounted how the karsevaks brought in sand and water from the Saryu to purify the site.
Das carried a grudge against the right-wing forces. He believed that since idols had been installed at the structure in 1949 and namaz had been stopped, it had become a mandir and that the karsevaks had demolished a temple, not a mosque.
After the government took over the entire site, Das was chosen to head the puja for Ram Lalla at the makeshift temple on the basis of his scholarly qualifications and clean record, a rare combination those days. Dubey noted how the administration struggled to find a priest who either didn’t have a criminal record, was entangled in any legal dispute or was attached to a political party. It was common for the temples and mutts in Ayodhya to be involved in legal battles over land or property rights. And this would often turn violent.
Das maintained a clean record throughout his spiritual career.
Also read: Ayodhya: The Humble Pilgrim Has Taken a Back Seat Amid a Costly Makeover to Drive Religious Tourism
After the mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992, Das continued to conduct puja at the makeshift temple, which was heavily guarded by both central and state police forces, for three decades. Visitors had to pass through four gates of metal detector frames and frisking, and walk through narrow, caged barricades to reach the spot where the idols of Ram, Sita and Lakhsman were kept on an elevated platform under a tent, where the dome of the masjid once stood. Das was usually available there in the first half of the day. The remains of the Babri Masjid and the brick-walls, hurriedly constructed by the karsevaks after the demolition, were still there as Das oversaw puja and darshan by devotees, while the legal case crawled in various courts.
In 2019, the Supreme Court controversially awarded the disputed land to the Hindu side for the construction of a grand temple for Ram, bringing an end to a protracted legal battle that spanned seven decades and resulted in the political rise and dominance of the BJP across the country.
On August 5, 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally launched the construction of the temple with an elaborate bhoomi poojan. The under-construction temple was hurriedly inaugurated by Modi with a consecration ceremony on January 22, 2024, ahead of the 2024 general elections.
During the course of all these events, from the puja of the idols planted inside the mosque to the Babri’s demolition and the construction of the Ram temple, Das was a constant figure.
‘They do not understand the bhakti of Ram’
Das was born on November 12, 1938 in Sant Kabir Nagar, which was then a part of Basti district in Purvanchal. He came to Ayodhya as a 20-year-old to study Sanskrit and Hindu texts. When his younger brother got married, he gave away his share of the land to him. Das rose to serve as a priest at the famous Hanuman Garhi temple. He also earned the title of ‘acharya’ (religious teacher) from Varanasi.
In 1958,when he arrived in Ayodhya, Das met Abhiram Das, the Bihar-origin sadhu who had planted the idol of Ram inside the Babri mosque, and started learning under his tutelage. Das held three degrees, including an M.A in Sanskrit. He even taught at a Sanskrit university in Ayodhya till he retired in 2007. After finishing his duties at the makeshift temple, he would return to his simple abode in the premises of the Gopal temple, one of the few dedicated to Krishna in the land of Ram.
Das once told me that he believed the temple was 500 years old but had no proof as his gurus did not leave any written records. “Once a Ram Bhakt came to the town and saw that Ayodhya only had Ram temples. So he decided there should also be a Krishna temple,” said Das, explaining the origin of his temple residence close to the Hanuman Garhi temple.
After the Ram temple opened, Das gained attention last year when he highlighted the alleged leakage of rainwater in the temple, which was built in the traditional Nagara style at an estimated cost of Rs 1,800 crore.
Throughout the legal dispute, Das reposed faith in the judiciary, no matter how long it took. He viewed political promises around a temple to be futile in absence of legal sanction. According to him, raising the temple issue repeatedly would only create communal tension in the country as the ultimate decision was to be taken by the highest judiciary.
In December 2024, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat expressed concern over the resurgence of legal disputes targeted at evicting Muslims from mosques and warned that no one would become a “leader of Hindus” by fanning communal divide. Das endorsed this perspective. Talking to a news agency, he said, “The conflict of a temple and a mosque is a communal conflict. And as such conflicts are rising, few people are becoming leaders. If becoming a leader is the only goal, then such conflicts are not right. Those who start a conflict just to become a leader are not right.”
Das saw through the VHP’s temple agenda since it launched its nationwide campaign in the mid 1980s. “First they started with one temple, the Ram Janmabhooomi Mandir, and when they saw people were mobilised over the issue, they spoke of three temples [Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura]. Since people started connecting with that too, they said not three, but 3,000 such mosques have been built after demolishing temples,” Das told me once.
At different junctures of the Ram temple movement, he opposed the VHP’s antics and attempts to polarise the society. In August 2013, when the VHP was adamant on taking out a 84-kosi parikrama yatra along the 272-km ‘cultural boundary’ of Ayodhya, Das rejected their idea saying the yatra had no religious sanction and was planned only to polarise voters ahead of the 2024 general elections.
In the summer of 2014, when the BJP included the construction of a Ram temple in its election manifesto, Das was among those who dismissed it as a ‘political gimmick’ and said that when the matter was in court, such promises were meant to mislead the Hindu voters.
In the 2024 general election, the BJP suffered a humiliating defeat in Faizabad despite the construction of a Ram temple, which led to an insidious right-wing campaign to abuse people of Ayodhya and blame them for the defeat. Speaking to The Wire then, Das called such people foolish.
“They obviously do not understand the bhakti of Bhagwan Ram. Such people who view Ram only as an election issue are petty and despicable,” Das said. For him, Ram was always a matter of faith and belonged to all, irrespective of their politics.
