QUICK TAKE | Point Your Phone at Ayodhya’s Ghats and Watch the Ramayana Appear. Seven Things to Know

1. What has Ayodhya added to Deepotsav?

An augmented reality experience that puts five episodes from Ram’s life on visitors’ phone screens. At designated spots along Ram Ki Paidi, a mobile app adds digital characters and scenes to the live camera view, with the actual riverfront still visible behind them.

2. How do visitors make a scene appear?

They open the app at a designated spot and point their phone camera at the location. Mayor Girish Pati Tripathi gave the example of pointing it towards a temple and seeing a 3D scene appear on screen. The app supports both Android and iOS.

3. Can you try it from home?

The live experience is tied to Ram Ki Paidi. It uses geofencing, a virtual boundary that activates the feature when the phone is within the designated area. Visitors can record what appears on their screens and share it with people elsewhere.

4. Which five episodes can visitors see?

The reports describe five scenes from Ram’s life without naming them individually. The festival’s separate procession of 22 tableaux draws from all seven kands, or books, of the epic. The five-scene count applies to the app.

5. Why is the mayor talking about Gen Z?

Tripathi wants younger visitors to engage with the Ramayana through a device they already carry. The app gives them something to do at the ghats: find a spot, bring a scene into view and record it from where they’re standing.

6. How is this different from the drone show?

The 2,100 drones tell parts of the Ramayana through formations that spectators can watch together in the sky. The AR scenes appear on individual phone screens, framed by whatever the visitor’s camera is pointing at.

7. Where does the app fit into the festival?

The main Deepotsav programme on November 7 includes a planned display of more than 30 lakh diyas across 56 ghats. Ram Ki Paidi is where visitors can see the lamp display and try the location-based Ramayana experience.