Importance of Gyanvapi Shrine and its milestones till today

*Paromita Das

Gyanvapi Shrine’s History: 

During the Gupta period, Chandragupta II, also known as Vikramaditya, is said to have built the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.

The famous Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsang described the temple and Varanasi in his works in 635.

1194-1197: Muhammad Ghori’s orders largely destroyed the temple, triggering a series of demolitions and rebuildings throughout history.
On the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the temple was demolished for the final time, and the Gyanvapi mosque was builat in its place.

Rani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore restored the temple near the Gyanvapi mosque in 1776-78.
The British government was sued in District Court in 1936 for the right to offer Namaz throughout the Gyanvapi complex.

The claimants called seven witnesses, while the British government called fifteen.

On August 15, 1937, the right to offer Namaz at the Gyanvapi mosque was explicitly granted, with the caveat that such prayers could not be offered anywhere else in the Gyanvapi complex.

On April 10, 1942, the High Court dismissed the appeal, upholding the lower court’s decision.
On October 15, 1991, Pandit Somnath Vyas, Dr. Ramrang Sharma, and others filed a lawsuit in Varanasi court, seeking the construction of a new temple at Gyanvapi as well as the freedom to worship.

In 1998, Anjuman Inazaniya Masajid and the UP Sunni Waqf Board Lucknow filed petitions in the High Court challenging the order.

Pandit Somnath Vyas died on March 7, 2000.

On October 11, 2018, Vijay Shankar Rastogi, a former district government advocate, was appointed as a plaintiff in this case.

On April 8, 2021, an order was issued to conduct an archaeological survey.

On Saturday, April 14th, 2022, the survey was launched.

What is the clash?

The mosque is located next to the well-known Kashi Vishwanath temple, and a group of women have petitioned the local court for permission to worship daily before the idols on the mosque’s exterior walls.

Finally, a local court ordered the Varanasi district administration to seal the location in the Gyanvapi Masjid complex where a Shivling was allegedly discovered during a three-day court-ordered videography survey on Monday, May 16.

Security forces have been entrusted with the security of the enclosed area.

The inspection of the mosque complex began at 8 a.m. today and ended around 10:15 a.m.
The survey team discovered a Shivling near the ‘wazookhana’ (a space inside a mosque where people wash their hands before delivering namaaz),” according to attorney Madan Mohan Yadav. Yadav and senior counsel Harishankar Jain, according to Yadav, filed a suit in the court of Civil Judge Diwakar to secure the Shivling.

What is the Places of Worship Act, which is at the heart of the Gyanvapi mosque controversy?

On Monday, lawyers for the Hindu petitioners claimed to have discovered a “Shivling” (the Hindu god Shiva’s symbol) idol at the disputed Gyanvapi mosque during a court-ordered video survey of the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex.

Despite the fact that the district court had strictly forbidden the officials involved from disclosing the nature of the mosque to the public, the claim was made.

The Muslim petitioners denied the claim, claiming that it was a “fountain, not a shivling.” Even the Varanasi District Magistrate, Kaushal Raj Sharma, refused to confirm the discovery of a “shivling.”

The court-ordered filming had previously been challenged in the Allahabad High Court, which dismissed the case in April.

Later, a lawyer for the Gyanvapi Mosque trust petitioned the Supreme Court, claiming that the order violated the Places of Worship Act of 1991.

The Supreme Court refused to halt the filming but agreed to hear a Muslim petitioner’s challenge to the survey of the mosque complex.

The latest issue involving the Gyanvapi Mosque has refocused attention on the Places of Worship Act, 1991, under which the mosque trust is contesting the order.
What exactly is the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991?

Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao enacted the law in 1991, at the height of the Ram Mandir movement and exactly a year before the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Except in the case of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, the law seeks to preserve the “religious character” of places of worship as it existed in 1947.

What are its provisions?

The conversion of a religious place of worship or a section of a religious place of worship into a place of worship of a different religion or a different denomination of the same religion is prohibited by Section 3 of the Act.
Section 4(2) states that all appeals, suits, or other proceedings related to converting a place of worship’s religious character must end on the effective date of the Act. Furthermore, new appeals will not be permitted.

Notably, the act states that legal action may be taken if the religious character of a place of worship is changed after August 15, 1947.
Furthermore, the Places of Worship Act imposes a positive obligation on the state (read government) to preserve all places of worship’s religious character as it existed at the time of independence.

The Act imposes a penalty.

The maximum penalty under the Act is three years in prison plus a fine. Views of the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court Constitution Bench upheld the law in the 2019 Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi verdict, saying that it reflects the secular credentials of the Indian Constitution and that it prohibits retrogression.

A lawyer claims that a Lord Shiva idol was discovered in a well in the Gyanvapi mosque complex.

Advocates for the Hindu side claim that a ‘Shivling’ (Lord Shiva idol) has been discovered inside a well of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi. The claim was made on the third consecutive day of court-ordered videography.

Vishnu Jain, a lawyer, stated that he would take the idol to civil court to seek protection.

Madan Mohan Yadav, a Hindu advocate, claimed that the shivling is Nandi’s face.

“The shivling is 12 feet long and 8 inches wide,” he added. Heavy security was deployed at the complex on Monday as a court-appointed committee arrived to conduct the survey (May 16). On Sunday, nearly 65% of the exercise had been completed.

The survey of the areas of the mosque that, according to lawyers Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Jain, used to be a part of the temple was completed on Sunday.

The remains of Hindu temple demolition are visible on the western wall of the Gyanvapi complex, and the images will be surveyed. The fourth lock was opened on Monday for this purpose, while the first three rooms were opened during the survey on Saturday.

 

What exactly is the Gyanvapi mosque problem?

Gyanvapi Mosque is located near the iconic Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. A legal battle is currently being waged against the mosque. A Varanasi court has ordered the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to investigate the structure of the Gyanvapi Masjid.

The Hindu side wants to be able to worship at the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex on a daily basis. It has demanded videography of the structure to back up its claim that entry into the mosque is required to prove the existence of Shringar Gauri (a Hindu deity) idol.

According to the Muslim side, Anjuman Intezamiya Masajid (mosque management committee), Shringar Gauri’s idol is on the mosque’s western side.
The temple is said to have been built over two thousand years ago. According to the claim, Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb demolished the Hindu temple and replaced it with a mosque.

On April 18, 2021, five Delhi-based women — Rakhi Singh, Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu, and others — petitioned the court for permission to offer daily prayers before Hindu deity idols.