Jharkhand woman to end 30-year-old vow of silence upon temple opening

Dhanbad (Jharkhand), Jan 9

An 85-year-old woman from Jharkhand will break her three-decade-long ‘maun vrat’ (vow of silence) after her dream comes true on January 22 with the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

She Communicated via sign language

Saraswati Devi, popularly known as ‘Mauni Mata’ in Ayodhya, took the vow in 1992. She used to communicate with family members through sign language, but wrote down complicated sentences

Saraswati Devi took the vow on the day Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, promising to break it only when the Ram Temple was inaugurated, her family claimed.

The Dhanbad resident reached the temple town in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday evening, where she was greeted by disciples of Pathar Mandir Ashram, her abode in Ayodha, to witness the inauguration of the temple.

Devi, who is popularly known as ‘Mauni Mata’ in Ayodhya, used to communicate with family members through sign language, but wrote down complicated sentences.

Though she took a break from ‘maun vrat’ and spoke for an hour at noon every day till 2020, she went completely silent the day the foundation for the temple was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The day Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, my mother took a vow to observe silence till the temple was constructed in Ayodhya. She has been jubilant ever since the date of consecration of the temple was announced,” 55-year-old Hare Ram Agarwal, Devi’s youngest child, said.

“She left for Ayodhya on Monday night aboard Ganga-Sutlej Express from Dhanbad Railway Station. She will break her silence on January 22,” Hare Ram, a resident of Bhowra in Baghmara block, said.