Hindu temple existed at Gyanvapi mosque site: ASI survey report

Hindu temple existed at Gyanvapi mosque site: ASI survey report

Subject: History

Section: Art and culture

Context:

• The western wall of the Gyanvapi mosque located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, is the remaining part of a pre­existing Hindu temple, says the ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey report of the structure prepared by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

About Gyanvapi Mosque

• It is a popular belief that the Gyanvapi Mosque was built in 1669 by the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb by demolishing the ancient Vishweshwar temple. It is worth mentioning that in Saqib Khan’s book ‘Yasir Alamgiri’, it is also mentioned that Aurangzeb had demolished the temple in 1669 by ordering Governor Abul Hassan.
• The case of Gyanvapi mosque has been in court since 1991, when three persons, including Pandit Somnath Vyas, a descendant of the priests of the Kashi Vishwanath temple, filed a suit in the court of the civil judge of Varanasi claiming that Aurangzeb had demolished the temple of Lord Vishweshwar and built a mosque on it so that the land should be returned to them.

Legal Safeguards 

• Under Section 3 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, it is prohibited to convert a place of worship, even its clause, into a place of worship of a different religious denomination or a different class of the same religious denomination.
• Section 4(2) of the Act states that all litigations, appeals or other proceedings relating to changing the nature of the place of worship (which were pending till August 15, 1947) shall cease after the enactment of this Act and no fresh action can be taken on such cases.
• However, if the change in the nature of the place of worship has occurred after the cut-off date of August 15, 1947 (after the act came into force ), legal action can be initiated in that case. The disputed site of Ayodhya (Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid) was exempted from the Act.