Gyanvapi Mosque Case: Idol Remains Belong To Sculptors? Muslim Side Doubts ASI Report

gyanvapi mosque case: idol remains belong to sculptors? muslim side doubts asi report

New Delhi: After the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was made public, it was revealed that broken idols and carvings of Hindu Gods and Goddesses were found at the site of the Gyanvapi Masjid, indicating that a Hindu temple existed there. However, mosque custodian Anjuman Intizamia Masajid (AIM) refused to agree.

AIM said fragments of “idols” found in a mound of debris may have been dumped there by sculptors who ran rented shops in a building there before it was demolished.

Reacting to the same, Hindu plaintiffs’ lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain said there was no basis for such an argument. He said ASI’s scientific survey report on Gyanvapi specifies “the age, era, diameter and all relevant details of each idol and artefacts recovered from the debris inside the compound”.

AIM lawyer Akhlaque Ahmad told TOI that the Hindu side’s claim about a pre-existing temple wasn’t based on any new finding. It said it would engage legal experts to study ASI’s report

“We haven’t gone through the details, but there seems to be nothing new in the claim by the plaintiffs regarding the recovery of idols from the debris during the survey. We will make specific comments after studying the report. As of now, the claims are exactly the same as those mentioned in the court commissioner’s survey in May 2022.”

Ahmad said there was a “strong possibility” that the “five to six sculptors” to whom AIM had rented out shops at Chhattadwar dumped damaged idols and waste in the southern part of the mosque till it was covered with iron grilles in 1993.

“It is possible that the ASI team recovered the same idols while removing debris during its survey.”

Varanasi district judge Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha ordered the scientific survey on July 21 last year while hearing the Shringar Gauri case. Last month, the ASI submitted the report in a sealed envelope to the district court. The ASI carried out a survey of the Gyanvapi premises on court directions to determine whether the mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

As per the report, parts of the pre-existing temple, including pillars and pilasters, were reused with modifications to extend the span of the mosque and construct the “sahan”.