Varanasi's Gyanvapi Mosque Survey To Begin Tomorrow, Says Official

A survey of Varanasi's Gyanvapi mosque by the Archaeological Survey of India will begin tomorrow, the district magistrate has said. The survey -- ordered by a local court on Friday -- will begin in the morning. It will extend to all areas except the sealed "wuzukhana" where a structure that Hindu litigants claimed to be a 'Shivling' – a relic of Lord Shiva -- was discovered during a survey in 2022. The ASI has to submit the report to the district court by August 4.

The court's order came in response to a petition by a group of women who claim the mosque was built over a Hindu temple. The women claim that ancient idols of Hindu gods and goddesses are located inside the mosque and only a scientific survey can reveal the truth.

In May, the Supreme Court had deferred the "scientific survey", including carbon dating, of a "Shivling" that was said to have been found at the Gyanvapi mosque complex during a videographic survey conducted last year. The court had also ordered that the 'wazukhana' area be sealed.

Earlier, the Allahabad High Court directed the ASI to conduct a scientific survey of the structure that Hindu petitioners claimed is a "Shivling". The Gyanvapi mosque authorities had said the structure is a part of a fountain in the "wazukhana", where people perform ablutions before offering namaz.

In September last year, the Varanasi district judge had dismissed a challenge by the mosque committee that argued that the case by the women has no legal standing.

Located in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, the Gyanvapi mosque is one of the several mosques the right wing believes were built on the ruins of Hindu temples.

It was one of the three temple-mosque rows, besides Ayodhya and Mathura, which the BJP raised in the 1980s and 1990s.

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