Ujjain: After Varanasi’s Gyanvapi masjid, another dispute over a mosque in Ujjain has started deepening with the Avahan Akhada Mahamandaleshwar claiming that a Shiv Temple was there before the masjid came up at the site. He has raised questions over the mosque situated near Dani Gate in Ujjain. He claimed that the Shiv temple was built by King Raja Bhoj as it has an idol of Lord Ganesha and pillars from the Parmar era.
The archaeology department has confirmed that the carvings on the pillars of the mosque are about thousands of years old and are from Parmar’s time.
After this confirmation, the Mahamandaleshwar has announced that he will soon go to court and recite Hanuman Chalisa in the mosque. Atulesh Anand Maharaj released the photographs of the mosque and claimed that the carving on the dome and main gate are from the Parmar era. The Parmars, a Kshatriya dynasty of medieval India, ruled from the 8th-14th century and Raja Bhoj was one of its greatest rulers.
Gyanvapi dispute in Varanasi
A local Varanasi court has ordered a video-graphic survey of Gyanvapi mosque, which is adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Hindu devotees believe that the mosque was built on the temple land. The court’s survey order came on a petition filed by five women who sought permission for daily worship of Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesha, and Nandi, whose idols are located on the walls of the Gyanvapi mosque.
Advocate Vijay Shankar Rastogi said that a map from the British time shows that a mosque came up inside the Gyanvapi complex, which was a temple land. He said that the Shringar Gauri temple was in the basement of the present-day mosque. The photographers who went to record the court-ordered survey said that they saw signs of lotus and Swastika, sacred symbols in Hinduism.
