Gita Press Offers Free Download of Ramcharitmanas Ahead of Ram Mandir Consecration Ceremony

As the much-awaited Ram Mandir consecration ceremony is around the corner, the demand for the holy book Ramcharitmanas has soared. To meet the rising demand, Gita Press, the well-known Gorakhpur-based Hindu religious publisher, has announced free download of the epic poem, written by Tulsidas and based on Ramayana.

According to the manager of Gita Press, Lalmani Tripathi, the demand for Ramcharitmanas has increased exponentially ever since the date of the consecration ceremony was announced. He also mentioned that the press is not prepared to produce 2-4 lakh (200,000-400,000) copies of the book all of a sudden. The press has only been able to make available 1 lakh (100,000) copies of the book in the past month. Tripathi added that in many places, they have had to regretfully decline demands for the book due to unavailability of stock.

To make the book available for everyone who wishes to read it, Gita Press has made it freely available for download on their website in 10 languages. Initially, 50,000 readers could download the e-copy of the book starting from Tuesday (Jan 16). Tripathi has also mentioned that if the demand increases, the press will scale up the traffic capacity to enable up to 1 lakh (100,000) people to download the book simultaneously.

Established in 1923, Gita Press has been one of the largest publishers of Hindu religious books and texts in multiple languages across the globe. Its objective is to “promote and spread the principles of Sanatana Dharma, the Hindu religion among the general public by publishing Gita, Ramayana, Upanishads, Puranas, Discourses of eminent Saints and other character-building books”.

The Ram Mandir consecration ceremony is scheduled to take place on January 22, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with several other eminent personalities will be attending it. The temple has been built after a long legal process, culminating with the landmark decision by the Supreme Court in 2019, granting the land upon which the Babri Masjid was razed to the Hindu side, while the Muslims were granted a piece of land to build a mosque elsewhere.