Current Affairs

Issue

A Varanasi Court has allowed resumption of video survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque, which is located adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath temple.

 

Background

The court was deciding on a petition filed by five women who had requested permission to pray at a shrine behind the western wall of the mosque complex.

 

Details

• The Gyanvapi mosque is assumed to have been built in 1669 during the reign of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The name was derived from adjoining Well of Knowledge.

• The emperor had ordered demolition of the existing Vishweshwar temple and the mosque was constructed on its ruins.

 

Construction of mosque

• The temple’s plinth was not touched and it served as the courtyard of the mosque. One of the walls was made the qibla wall, which faces Mecca.

• Materials from the destroyed temple were used to build the mosque. The Nandi bull in present temple premises still faces the sanctum sanctorum of destroyed temple.

 

The Vishwananth temple

• The present temple was built in 18th century by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, just outside the perimeter of the mosque.

• There is a belief that original Shiv Lingam was hidden in the well before the temple was destroyed. This has rekindled the demand for conducting pooja inside mosque premises.

 

Disputed sites

• The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 ensures maintenance of status quo of all disputed worship sites as it was on August 15, 1947.

• The law had exempted the Ayodhya disputed site but applies to Gyanvapi mosque and Shahi Eidgah of Mathura.