3. ASI to find if Gyanvapi was ever a temple
Jul 21, 2023, 11.28 PM IST
What
- A Varanasi court has directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
- District Judge AK Vishwesha limited the survey’s timing to 8 am-12 noon, asking the ASI to submit its report by August 4.
- The 'wazukhana' or the fountain area, where a previous survey found a ‘Shivling’ as claimed by Hindu litigants, will not be part of the survey, following an earlier Supreme Court order. Muslim worshippers perform ritual ablutions here.
- In May, the Supreme Court had refused to allow ASI to conduct the carbon dating of the 'Shivling', putting on hold an Allahabad High Court order.
- The scientific survey will find out whether the mosque had been built on an already existing structure of a Hindu temple.
- The mosque management's counsel Mohammed Tauhid Khan said it will challenge the order. "It is not acceptable and we will move to a higher court against it. This survey could cause damage to the mosque," he said.
- Five women had earlier moved the Varanasi court seeking permission to pray at the “Shringar Gauri Sthal” inside the shrine complex.
- Through a series of court directions, the ASI undertook a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi complex in May last year, reporting that the fountain could possibly have been a Shivling.
- The Muslim side rejected the suggestion, insisting that the structure was merely a fountain.
- The petitioners have argued that a Swayambhu Jyotirlinga (a symbol of God Shiva) existed at the site for thousands of years before it faced repeated destruction by Muslim invaders since Mahmud Ghazni’s attack in 1017.
- They have referred to a decree issued by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1669 to demolish the temple of Adivisheshwar at the disputed site.
- Their counsel has argued that the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque dispute could only be resolved by an archaeological investigation of the entire complex.