profound faith and emotions of millions who visited Ayodhya following the inauguration of the Ram Mandir. It is a complete pictorial documentation of the human emotions and devotion that flooded the small town soon after the temple’s opening. 

The event was attended by a distinguished lineup of guests of honour, including actors Aditi Rao Hydari, Divya Dutta, and Gul Panag; boxer Mary Kom; economist Sanjeev Sanyal; G20 Chief Amitabh Kant; UNESCO India representative Timothy Curtis; Olympian rower Bilkis Mir; and Kishwar Choudhury, a sensation from MasterChef Australia in Melbourne. The presence of these prominent personalities underscores the significance of the book and its impact on India’s cultural and spiritual heritage.

Aashvi Agarwal, hailing from Kolkata, has created an exhaustive and iconic book on Ayodhya. Her work visually documents the human emotions and devotion that flooded the small town soon after the temple’s opening. Through over 300 black and white photographs, Agarwal skillfully merges Ayodhya’s architecture, traditions, and heritage with the overwhelming sea of faith that inundated the town.

Agarwal was mentored by Kounteya Sinha, one of India’s most powerful visual storytellers and a recent recipient of the Nelson Mandela Leadership Award at the University of Oxford. Sinha, a multi-award-winning journalist and photographer, guided Agarwal in capturing the essence of faith and devotion in her photographs.

The book has received praise from Uma Nair, one of India’s top art curators and critics, who described it as “historic and unparalleled.” Nair commended Agarwal’s ability to capture the raw emotions of faith in a purely human story, free from politics or personal agendas. She noted that Agarwal’s debut reveals a unique style, blending traditional narrative techniques with modern human graphics to create a fresh and innovative testimony of the magic of monochromatic, cinematic moments in Ayodhya.

In the preface, Nair highlights the remarkable achievement of Agarwal in deciphering the nuances of such a complex and mature subject with supreme storytelling, layering, and humaneness. Sinha added that documenting such a significant human congregation in Ayodhya was a formidable task, but Agarwal approached it with exceptional passion and dedication, resulting in a book that will be remembered as iconic and path-breaking.

The other guests who attended the event were Shazia Ilmi, Neeraj Bakshi, Neelam Pratap Rudy, Deepa Sondhi, Leena Singh, Niloufer Currimbhoy, Nassar Abdullah, Jatin Das, Bubbles Sabharwal and many other renowned personalities.