New Delhi: According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report, which was submitted to the Varanasi district court in a sealed cover last month, the Gyanvapi mosque complex was built over a pre-existing Hindu temple. The report was made public on Tuesday, after the court ordered that it be given to both the parties involved in the litigation. The counsel for the Hindu side, Vishnu Shankar Jain, claimed that the ASI report was a “conclusive finding” that proved the existence of a large Hindu temple under the mosque.


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He said that the ASI had recorded 34 inscriptions on the stones of the existing and pre-existing structures, which belonged to the Hindu temple that was destroyed and reused for the mosque.“The inscriptions are in Devanagari, Grantha, Telugu and Kannada scripts. They mention the names of three deities - Janardana, Rudra and Umeshwara. This shows that the earlier structures were Hindu temples,” Jain said.


 



He also said that the ASI had studied the pillars and plasters used in the mosque and found that they were parts of the pre-existing temple, which were modified and mutilated. He cited the example of Vyala figures, which are mythical creatures carved on the temple pillars, that were defaced and replaced with floral designs.


“The ASI has done a systematic and scientific study of the pillars and plasters and found that they were originally part of a Hindu temple. There are two similar plasters on the north and south walls of the western chamber that support this observation,” Jain said.


The ASI conducted the survey of the Gyanvapi premises following the directions of the court, which was hearing a petition filed by a Hindu trust seeking the restoration of the temple. The petition claimed that the mosque was built by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb after demolishing the original Kashi Vishwanath temple in the 17th century.