‘Deepotsav Has Added Yet Another Festival In Our Lives’

Pradeep Gupta, a restaurant owner in Ayodhya, the Deepotsav has increased the number of business days in the yearly calendar of local business community. His views:

The 30-lakh odd population of the holy city of Ayodhya is thankful to the present state government for reviving Deepotsav, a forgotten tradition of Ayodhya. This will be the eight edition of the celebrations which has, besides benefitting the business community, added yet another festival to our calendar year.

Earlier, our business was somewhat constrained to festivals and traditions like Dushehra, Diwali, Kosi Praikramas but now people across the country have got two new reasons to celebrate Hinduism – one is January 22 (When the Pran Pratishtha of Ram Lala was done in the Garbha Griha of the newly constructed Ram Temple this year) and the second Deepotsav that has been organized every year since 2017.

Talking about the Deepotsav which shall be held on October 30, the celebrations extend to four-five days. The number of people coming to attend this event is increasing every year and this year also, about two to three lakh people from Ayodhya and adjoining districts as well as other parts of the country are expected to visit the city. This means increased business opportunities.

I own an eatery which remains open for as long as 18 to 20 hours a day! So, from my personal example I can safely vouch that the local business units have immensely benefitted from the spurt in religious tourism. Be it sweets sellers, religious item sellers, flower sellers etc, everyone has joined the party.

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Significantly, the event has also infused new life into the almost extinct art of pottery as the Kumhar community – there are about 50 families in Ayodhya from this sect – get busy during Deepotsav. Although it is impossible for these families to supply the immense demand (which is 25 lakhs diyas this year), the government tries to purchase all their produce and the rest is outsourced from the neighboring districts thus giving a new lease of life to the backward community.

Besides diyas, the cotton battis are also sourced from local manufacturers and many household units have also found sustainable income from this festival. The local youths now have more earning opportunities at hand and household incomes have got a boost.

Besides all this, the local civic authorities also keep sharing and educating the future plans for the development of our city and the business community. For example, the authorities are projecting a ratio of 1:10 of residents to tourists as the number of visitors has been increasing drastically after the inauguration of the newly constructed Ram Temple. In 2021, the number of tourists who visited Ayodhya was about 3.25 lakh and shot up to over 2 crores this year till date.

We are quite confident about the civic bodies achieving their targets and their efforts along with the intentions and commitment of the state and central government are definitely reaping results for everyone in Ayodhya.   

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As told to Rajat Rai