A large, bronze statue of Lakshman, the younger brother of Lord Ram, was placed outside Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport here on Tuesday. Although it is yet to be formally unveiled, Pratapgarh BJP MP Sangam Lal Gupta has flagged an old demand to rename Lucknow after Lakshman.
The bronze statue, designed by Statue of Unity fame sculptor Ram Sutar, has been installed at a roundabout just outside the park in its surroundings. The installation has happened days before the Global Investors’ Summit (GIS) scheduled in Lucknow from February 10 to 12 and the G20 summit meetings scheduled from February 13 to 15.
Gupta has written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and U.P. chief minister Yogi Adityanath to rename Lucknow to either ‘Lakhanpur’ or ‘Lakshmanpur.’ In May 2022, CM Yogi Adityanath’s tweet to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gained much traction. That’s because the CM’s tweet had reference to Lakshman.
“Seshavatar bhagwan Sri Lakshmanji ki pawan nagri Lucknow mein aapka hardik swagat va abhinandan (warm welcome on your arrival in Lucknow, the land of lord Lakshman),” Yogi had tweeted then.
“As per ancient belief, Lord Ram had gifted Lucknow to Lakshman ji and had since been named after him as ‘Lakhanpur’ or ‘Lakshmanpur’ but in 18th century, the then nawab Asaf-ud-Daula renamed it as Lucknow and that’s how it is known since. Now that the country has entered Amrit Kaal, this symbol of slavery needs to be done away with,” the BJP MP has said in his letter.
{{/usCountry}}“As per ancient belief, Lord Ram had gifted Lucknow to Lakshman ji and had since been named after him as ‘Lakhanpur’ or ‘Lakshmanpur’ but in 18th century, the then nawab Asaf-ud-Daula renamed it as Lucknow and that’s how it is known since. Now that the country has entered Amrit Kaal, this symbol of slavery needs to be done away with,” the BJP MP has said in his letter.
{{/usCountry}}In 2018, former Lucknow MP and BJP veteran Lalji Tandon had in his book ‘Ankaha Lucknow’ also claimed that the city was originally named ‘Lakshmanavati, then Lakshmanpur and Lakhnavati before becoming Lucknow.’
Tandon, in his book, had also gone on to state that Lucknow’s biggest Sunni mosque, the Teele Wali Masjid, was built by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb over ‘Lakshman Teela’, a raised platform named after Lakshman. He had also claimed existence of a ‘Shesh Gufa’ on ‘Teela’ to cite proof of Lucknow’s link with Lakshman. The ‘Gufa’, Tandon claimed in his book, was demolished during Alauddin Khilji’s reign to pave the way for a mosque.