Millions of oil lamps flickered along the banks of the Sarayu on Sunday night as Ayodhya lit up for Deepotsav-2026 — and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath marked the occasion with a Sanskrit invocation and a heartfelt greeting to every devotee gathered at the ancient pilgrim city.

Invoking the timeless Dharmashastra maxim 'Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah' ('Dharma protects those who protect it'), CM Yogi described Ayodhya — referred to by its classical name Awadhpuri — as radiating 'extraordinary divinity and transcendent grandeur.' He extended 'heartfelt congratulations and felicitations' to all Ram devotees participating in the festival, signing off with the chant 'Jai Jai Shri Ram.'

Nine years of Deepotsav: from a state event to a national spectacle

The Uttar Pradesh government launched Deepotsav in Ayodhya in 2017 — the same year CM Yogi took office — as a deliberate effort to position the city as a centrepiece of India's religious-tourism map. What began as a ceremonial lighting of diyas along the Sarayu ghats has grown, edition by edition, into one of the country's most-watched cultural events, drawing pilgrims and visitors from across the subcontinent.

The festival gained additional resonance after the consecration of the Ram Mandir in January 2024, which followed the Supreme Court's landmark verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi site. With the temple now standing, each subsequent Deepotsav carries the weight of both cultural celebration and a tangible policy achievement for the state government.

Ayodhya's transformation as a pilgrimage economy

CM Yogi's post is more than seasonal greetings — it sits within a sustained, multi-year state push to upgrade Ayodhya's infrastructure, ghats, and visitor facilities as part of a broader religious-tourism circuit across eastern Uttar Pradesh. Successive Deepotsav editions have been accompanied by announcements of new road links, airport upgrades, and riverfront development along the Sarayu.

The alignment is deliberate: cultural events generate footfall, footfall justifies infrastructure spend, and infrastructure spend feeds back into the tourism economy. For the Yogi Adityanath government, Ayodhya functions as the flagship proof-of-concept for that loop — and Deepotsav is its most visible annual demonstration.

Official attendance figures and tourism revenue data for the 2026 edition are expected to be released by the state government in the days ahead — numbers that will be watched closely as a measure of how far the city's transformation has come since that first lamp-lit evening nine years ago.