Who is Chandrakant Sompura, the visionary architect behind the Ram Temple in Ayodhya? | Aζ South Asia

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Chandrakant Sompura is an Ahmedabad-based chief architect of the Ram temple.1

The long list of temples to their credit also includes the Akshardham temple complex in Gujarat, the Swaminarayan mandir in Mumbai, and the famed Birla Mandir in Kolkata.

About 32 years ago, Sompura was contacted by the then Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief, Ashok Singhal through the Birla family to come up with a design for the Ram temple. The 81-year-old then first visited the site with Ashok Singhal to recce the land.2

However, the design of temple of the Ram temple was later modified in 2020, aligning with Vastu shashtra and Shilpa shastras, as per Republic World.3

“It is 20 feet higher than the highest flood level (recorded till now),” he said, while adding, “The other unique feature of the temple will be the ‘surya tilak’, where lenses will be provided on the roof (shikhar) to ensure the Sun rays fall on the “forehead of the idol on the day of Ram Navami.”

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1. As per a Times Now report, he is the 15th generation in his family of temple architecture designing business. He has designed around 130 temples, including the Ambaji temple in Palanpur and the Swami Narayan temple in Gandhinagar, as per News9. The Sompuras have played a significant role in influencing Indian architecture. The family has a centuries-long tradition and was instrumental in the building of more than 200 temples across the country. According to CNBC-TV18, it was Sompura’s grandfather, Prabhashankar Sompura, who designed the revived Somnath temple in Gujarat’s Prabhas Patan in 1949.
2. “We met and discussed the construction of the temple and had to go to Ayodhya to recce the land. With so much security present, I had to disguise myself as a devotee and measure the area with footsteps to make the masterplan,” Sompura told Outlook magazine.
3. In an interview with Indian Express, the Sompuras discussed the challenges of technological integration among their family of traditionally trained architects, saying, “We feel we were the chosen ones” for this task. This will be the “first temple in the world,” according to his 51-year-old son Ashish, to have undergone a 3D structural analysis before construction to ensure that it would withstand earthquakes up to an eight on the Richter scale. In order to guarantee that “whatever calamity strikes, nothing will happen to this temple,” the structural analysis was carried out by the Central Building Research Institute in Roorkee.