Gyanvapi Mosque: Difference between revisions

The '''Gyanvapi Mosque''' is located in [[Varanasi|Banaras]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[India]]. It was constructed by [[Aurangzeb]] in 1669 upon demolition of an older Shiva temple.<ref name="Catherine1992">{{cite book |author=Catherine B. Asher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ctLNvx68hIC&pg=PA278 |title=Architecture of Mughal India |date=24 September 1992 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-26728-1 |pages=278–279}}</ref>

The site had a Vishweshwar temple devoted to the Hindu deity [[Shiva]]. It was built by [[Todar Mal]] in conjunction with Narayana Bhatta—the head of Banaras's most-famous [[Brahmin]] family—during the reign of [[Akbar]] (16th century).<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" /><ref name="Asher">{{Cite journal |last=Asher |first=Catherine B. |date=May 2020 |title=Making Sense of Temples and Tirthas: Rajput Construction Under Mughal Rule |journal=The Medieval History Journal |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=9–49 |doi=10.1177/0971945820905289 |issn=0971-9458 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="O'Hanlon">{{Cite journal |last=O'Hanlon |first=Rosalind |date=2011-03-21 |title=Speaking from Siva's temple: Banaras scholar households and the Brahman 'ecumene' of Mughal India |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19472498.2011.553496 |journal=South Asian History and Culture |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=264–265 |doi=10.1080/19472498.2011.553496 |issn=1947-2498 |s2cid=145729224}}</ref> [[Vir Singh Deo|Vir Singh Deo Bundela]], a close associate of [[Jahangir]], appears to have had refurbished the temple in the early seventeenth century.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" /><ref name="Pauwels" /><ref name="O'Hanlon" />

What might have existed at the site prior to this temple is debated by scholars.<ref name="Dumper" /> Such history has been extensively contested by local Hindu as well as Muslim population.<ref name="Desai Introduction" /><ref name="Searle-Chatterjee">{{Cite book |last=Searle-Chatterjee |first=Mary |title=Living Banaras: Hindu Religion in Cultural Context |date=April 1993 |publisher=SUNY Press |editor-last=Hertel |editor-first=Bradley R. |series=SUNY Series in Hindu Studies |location=Albany, New York |pages=152–158 |chapter=Religious division and the mythology of the past |editor-last2=Humes |editor-first2=Cynthia Ann}}</ref> Madhuri Desai — in her magnum opus on Banaras —  notes the multiple histories of the original temple and tensions arising out of the location of Gyanvapi to have fundamentally shaped the sacred topography of the city.<ref name="Desai Introduction" />

=== Claims ===

Recent accounts of the history of the mosque, as purveyed by Hindus,{{efn|Pilgrims visiting the present [[Kashi Vishwanath Temple]] are informed with such a narrative<ref name="Desai Introduction"/> Local textbooks of the 1990s propagated such a reading of the mosque's past as well.<ref name="Searle-Chatterjee" />}} center around a litany of repeated destruction and re-construction of the original temple which is situated in contrast to the timelessness of the lingam.<ref name="Desai Introduction" /> The original temple, located the current site of the mosque, was allegedly uprooted by [[Qutb al-Din Aibak]] in 1193/1194 CE, upon the defeat of Raja [[Jayachandra]] of [[Kannauj]]; the Razia Mosque was constructed in its place, a few years later.<ref name="Pauwels" /><ref name="SPUday2005">{{cite book |author=Udayakumar |first=S. P. |title=Presenting the Past: Anxious History and Ancient Future in Hindutva India |date=2005 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-275-97209-7 |pages=99 |chapter=Ramarajya: Envisioning the Future and Entrenching the Past}}</ref><ref name="Bakker">{{Cite journal |last=Bakker |first=Hans |date=1996 |title=Construction and Reconstruction of Sacred Space in Vārāṇasī |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3270235 |journal=Numen |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=42–43 |doi=10.1163/1568527962598368 |issn=0029-5973 |jstor=3270235}}</ref> The temple would be rebuilt by a Gujarati merchant during the reign of [[Iltutmish]] (1211–1266 CE) only to be demolished by [[Hussain Shah Sharqi]] (1447–1458) or [[Sikandar Lodhi]] (1489–1517).<ref name="SPUday2005" /> During [[Akbar]]'s rule, [[Man Singh I|Raja Man Singh]] got the temple re-constructed,{{efn|orthodox Brahmins apparently chose to boycott the temple, since Man Singh's daughter was married to Islamic rulers.<ref name="SPUday2005"/>}} but it would again fell victim to Aurangzeb's intense religious zealotry.<ref name="Searle-Chatterjee" />

In contrast, most local Muslims reject that Aurangzeb had demolished the temple for religious zealotry; theories include — (a) the original building was never a temple but a structure of the [[Din-i Ilahi]] faith which was destroyed out of Aurangzeb's hostility to Akbar's "heretical" thought-school, (b) the original building was indeed a temple but destroyed by Jnan Chand (a Hindu) as a consequence of the priest having looted and violated one of his female relatives, (c) the temple was destroyed by Aurangzeb but only because it served as a hub of political rebellion.<ref name="Searle-Chatterjee" /> Relatively fringe arguments include that the Gyanvapi was constructed much before Aurangzeb's reign — Maulana Abdus Salam Nomani (d. 1987), erstwhile Imam of the Gyanvapi mosque, has claimed evidence of [[Shah Jahan]] having had started a [[madrasah]] called ''Imam-e-Sharifat'' at the mosque in 1638–1639 CE — or that the temple was demolished due to a communal riot of Hindus' doing.<ref name="Searle-Chatterjee" /><ref>{{cite book |author=Diane P. Mines and Sarah Lamb |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFhYnt2rL6YC&pg=PA344 |title=Everyday Life in South Asia |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=9780253340801 |page=344}}</ref> The mosque management committee supports Nomani and maintains that both the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the Gyanvapi were constructed by Akbar, true to his spirit of religious tolerance.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dutta |first=Prabhash K. |date=15 May 2022 |title=Gyanvapi: A 31-year dispute of 353-year-old shrine explained |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/gyanvapi-a-31-year-dispute-of-353-year-old-shrine-explained/articleshow/91555196.cms |access-date=2022-05-17 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}</ref>

[[Diana L. Eck]] finds medieval chronicles to affirm the Hindu notions of an Adi-Vishweshwar premises being the original home of the lingam; however, scholars have critiqued Eck’s non-contextual usage of medieval sources.<ref name="Dumper" /><ref name="Desai Authenticity and Pilgrimage">{{Cite book |last=Desai |first=Madhuri |title=Banaras Reconstructed: Architecture and Sacred Space in a Hindu Holy City |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-295-74160-4 |pages=17–29 |chapter=Authenticity and Pilgrimage |jstor=j.ctvcwnwvg.5 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnwvg.5}}</ref>{{Efn|Dumper finds Eck’s history to be "extraordinarily confusing, moving from rhetorical storytelling to historical fact".}} [[Hans T. Bakker]] finds the temple destroyed in 1194 to be indeed located in current-day Gyanvapi precincts but devoted to Avimukteshwara; sometime around the late 13th century, Hindus reclaimed the vacant Gyanvapi site for a temple of Vishweshwar since the Razia mosque had occupied the "Hill of Vishweshwar".<ref name="Bakker" /> This new temple would be destroyed by the [[Jaunpur Sultanate]], apparently to supply building materials for mosques at their new capital.<ref name="Bakker" />

In contrast, Madhuri Desai, in her reading of medieval literature, rejects the existence of any Vishweshwar temple in early-medieval Banaras; she alongside other scholars argue that it was only in the ''Kashikhand''{{Efn|A part of Skanda Purana; widely considered to be the most authoritative non-secular text on the conception of the city.}} that Vishweshwar would be featured as the major deity of the city for the first time and even then, for centuries, it remained one among the ''many'' sacred spots of Banaras.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests">{{Cite book |last=Desai |first=Madhuri |title=Banaras Reconstructed: Architecture and Sacred Space in a Hindu Holy City |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-295-74160-4 |pages=30–72 |chapter=Palimpsests and Authority |jstor=j.ctvcwnwvg.6 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnwvg.6}}</ref><ref name="Pauwels" /><ref name="Desai Authenticity and Pilgrimage" />{{Efn|Different 'nibandha' commentators across the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries zeroed in on different temples and sought to re-define the sacred space of Kashitirtha in its terms}} Vishweshwar would be transformed into the principal shrine of the city only after sustained Brahminical activism and the patronage of Mughals, beginning from the late sixteenth century.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" /><ref name="Desai Authenticity and Pilgrimage" /> The Hindu claims are seen to be the building blocks of a meta-narrative about Hindu civilization being continually oppressed by Muslim invaders, which was reinforced via colonial apparatuses of knowledge production.<ref name="Dumper" /><ref name="Desai Introduction" />

However, there does not exist any acceptance of the Muslim narratives in historical scholarship;{{Efn |However, Mary Searle-Chatterjee notes of an eminent historian from Banaras Hindu University (G. D. Bhatnagar) to reject Aurangzeb's having destroyed a temple. Searle-Chatterjee herself refuses to discuss the historical validity of competing narratives, noting - "The historical issues are irrelevant, since it is dear that whatever the facts were, accounts of the origin of the central ruin are now functioning as symbolic narrative, providing a charter for contemporary attitudes and behavior."}} Desai deems Nomani's arguments as a strategic "rewriting of history" arising out of the Hindu-hegemonic nature of discourse in postcolonial Benaras.<ref name="Nita Kumar">{{Cite journal |last=Kumar |first=Nita |date=2021-01-02 |title=Banaras reconstructed: architecture and sacred space in a Hindu holy city |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2021.1875734 |journal=South Asian History and Culture |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=104–106 |doi=10.1080/19472498.2021.1875734 |issn=1947-2498 |s2cid=231741518}}</ref><ref name="Madhuri_2003">{{cite journal |author=Madhuri Desai |year=2003 |title=Mosques, Temples, and Orientalists: Hegemonic Imaginations in Banaras |journal=Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=23–37 |jstor=41758028}}</ref>

== Establishment ==

[[File:Temple Of Vishveshwur Benares by James Prinsep 1834.jpg|thumb|The Gyanvapi Mosque sketched as the Temple of Vishveshwur, Benares by [[James Prinsep]]. The original wall of the now demolished temple still stands in the mosque.|376x376px]]Sometime around 1669, [[Aurangzeb]] ordered the demolition of the temple; a mosque was constructed in place, probably by Aurangzeb himself, sometime soon.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests"/><ref name="Dumper">{{Cite book |last=Dumper |first=Michael |title=Power, Piety, and People: The Politics of Holy Cities in the Twenty-First Century |date=2020-08-24 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-54566-2 |chapter=Hindu– Muslim Rivalries in Banaras: History and Myth as the Present}}</ref>{{Efn|Masat-i-Alamgiri only records the destruction of the temple.}} The façade was modeled partially on the [[Taj Mahal]]'s entrance; the [[plinth]] of the temple was left largely untouched and continued to serve as the courtyard of the mosque, and the southern wall — along with its cusped arches, exterior moldings and toranas — was turned into the [[Qibla|qibla wall]].<ref name="Catherine1992" /><ref name="Desai Palimpsests"/><ref name="Asher"/><ref name="Dumper"/> These surviving elements attest to the influence of Mughal architectural style on the original temple.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests"/>{{Efn|James Princep conjectured a reconstruction of the temple from his observations of the temple-remnants, interviews of local Brahmins and readings of nibandha literature. Rosalind O' Hanlon, on the basis of this plan, deems the original temple to have derived from the Kashikhanda.{{pb}}Desai finds his reconstruction to be far from realistic and adds that the plan has been often incorrectly noted to be the official version. Detailed architectural details remain unknown. Chunar limestone was the probable building-material.}}

The name of the mosque is derived from that of an adjoining waterbody — ''Gyan Vapi'' ("Well of Knowledge") — which, in all likelihood, predated the Vishweshwar temple and was a pond.<ref name="Pauwels">{{Cite thesis |last=Shin |first=Heeryoon |type=PhD |title=Building a "Modern" Temple Town: Architecture and Patronage in Banaras, 1750-1900 |date=May 2015 |publisher=[[Yale University]] |page=4, 35, 38, 198}}</ref>{{efn|Legends hold that Shiva had dug it himself to cool the [[lingam]].<ref name="Pauwels"/>}} Oral accounts indicate that notwithstanding the desecration, Brahmin priests were allowed to reside in the premises of the mosque and exert their privileges on issues of Hindu pilgrimage.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" /> The Gyanvapi site — especially the plinth — continued to remain a popular hub for Hindu pilgrims from across the country.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" />

Scholars attribute political reasons rather than religious zealotry to be the primary motivation for Aurangzeb's demolition.<ref name="Pauwels"/> The ''Oxford World History of Empire'' notes that while the demolition might be interpreted as a sign of Aurangzeb's "orthodox inclinations", local politics played an influencing role and his policies towards Hindus and their places of worship were "varied and contradictory, rather than consistently agnostic." Madhuri Desai — in her magnum opus on Banaras — opines that Aurangzeb's complex and often-contradictory policies can be "more accurately analyzed in [the] light of his personal compulsions and political agenda, rather than as expressions of religious bigotry."<ref name="Desai Palimpsests"/><ref name="Desai Introduction">{{Cite book |last=Desai |first=Madhuri |title=Banaras Reconstructed: Architecture and Sacred Space in a Hindu Holy City |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-295-74160-4 |pages=3–16 |chapter=Introduction: The Paradox of Banaras |jstor=j.ctvcwnwvg.4 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnwvg.4}}</ref>

Catherine Asher, a historian of Indo-Muslim architecture, notes that not only did the [[zamindar]]s of Banaras frequently rebel against Aurangzeb but also the local Brahmins were accused of interfering with Islamic teaching.<ref name="Catherine1992"/><ref name="Eaton">{{Cite journal |last=Eaton |first=Richard M. |title=Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States |date=2000 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26198197 |journal=Journal of Islamic Studies |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=306–307 |doi=10.1093/jis/11.3.283 |jstor=26198197 |issn=0955-2340}}</ref> Consequently, she argues that the demolition was a political message in that it served as a warning for the Zamindars and Hindu religious leaders, who wielded great influence in the city, [[Cynthia Talbot]], [[Richard M. Eaton]], [[Satish Chandra (historian)|Satish Chandra]] and [[Audrey Truschke]] agree.<ref name="Catherine1992"/><ref name="Desai Palimpsests"/><ref name="Eaton"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Truschke |first=Audrey |title=Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King |date=2017-01-01 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-1-5036-0259-5 |pages=85–86 |chapter=Overseer of Hindu Religious Communities}}</ref>

In 1698, [[Bishan Singh]], the ruler of [[Jaipur State|Amber]], had his agents survey the town and gather details about the various claims and controversies regarding the demolition of the temple; their maps ('''tarah''<nowiki/>') made it a point to note that the Gyanvapi mosque lay at the site of a dismantled Vishweshwar temple. They also marked the temple-plinth separately.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests"/>{{Efn|These maps also noted the edges of the rectangular mosque-precinct to be lined up with the residences of Brahmin priests. Desai (in her thesis) mistook these surveys to have been commissioned "in all likelihood" by the Maharaja of Jaipur.}} The Amber court purchased significant land around the Gyanvapi precincts, including some from Muslim inhabitants, with an aim to rebuild the temple without demolishing the mosque. But these efforts did not succeed.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" /> Around 1700, an "Adi-Vishweshwar Temple" was constructed at the initiative of Bishan Singh's successor [[Sawai Jai Singh II]], about 150 yards anterior to the mosque.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" /><ref name="MASherring_1868">{{cite book |author=Matthew Atmore Sherring |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HlQOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA55 |title=The Sacred City of the Hindus: An Account of Benares in Ancient and Modern Times |publisher=Trübner & co. |year=1868 |pages=51–56 |author-link=Matthew Atmore Sherring}}</ref> The temple borrowed extensively from contemporary Mughal architecture, in what scholars regard as evidence of imperial patronage.<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" /><ref name="Asher" />{{Efn|Desai notes that the particular choice of naming (probably) suggests a collective Hindu memory of the Vishweshwar lingam having a prior location at the site.}}

By the early 18th century, Banaras was under the effective control of the [[Nawab of Awadh|Nawabs of Lucknow]].<ref name="Desai Expansion">{{Cite book |last=Desai |first=Madhuri |title=Banaras Reconstructed: Architecture and Sacred Space in a Hindu Holy City |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-295-74160-4 |chapter=Expansion and Invention |pages=73–117 |jstor=j.ctvcwnwvg.7 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnwvg.7}}</ref> With the advent of the [[East India Company]] and increasingly severe annexation policies, multiple rulers from across the country — and even administrative elites — started investing in Brahminising Banaras, to claim cultural authority back in their homelands.<ref name="Desai Expansion"/> The Marathas, in particular, became highly vocal about religious injustice at the hands of Aurangzeb and [[Nana Fadnavis]] proposed demolishing the mosque and reconstructing a Vishweshwar temple.<ref name="Pauwels"/> In 1742, [[Malhar Rao Holkar]] proposed a similar course of action.<ref name="Desai Expansion"/> In spite of their consistent efforts, these plans did not materialize due to a multitude of interventions — [[Nawab of Awadh|Nawabs of Lucknow]] who were their political rivals, local Brahmins who feared the wrath of the Mughal court, and British authorities who feared an outbreak of communal tensions.<ref name="Pauwels"/><ref name="Desai Expansion"/>[[File:Benares well.jpg|thumb|Gyanvapi, the original holy well between the temple and mosque|260x260px]]In the late eighteenth century, as [[East India Company]] gained direct control of Banaras ousting the Nawabs, Malhar Rao's successor (and daughter-in-law) [[Ahilyabai Holkar]] constructed the present [[Kashi Vishwanath Temple]] to the immediate south of the mosque — this, however, had a markedly different spatial configuration and was ritually inconsistent.<ref name="Dumper"/><ref name="Desai Expansion"/>{{Efn|The precise year of construction is not known. It already existed by 1781, when [[Warren Hastings]] commissioned the construction of a gateway.}} Compounded with the belief that the original lingam was hidden by the priests inside the Gyan Vapi during Aurangzeb's raid, the plinth would attract greater devotion than the temple for well over a century.<ref name="Desai Expansion"/><ref name="Gaenszle">{{Cite book |last1=Gaenszle |first1=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIMMAQAAMAAJ |title=Visualizing Space in Banaras: Images, Maps, and the Practice of Representation |last2=Gengnagel |first2=Jörg |date=2006 |publisher=Isd |isbn=978-3-447-05187-3}}</ref>{{Efn |British traveler [[Reginal Heber]] notes the plinth to be considered more sacred by the pilgrims, as late as 1824. the Gyanvapi well was also rumored to contain the lingam and the water of the Gyan Vapi — brought by a subterraneous channel of the Ganges — was treated as holier than the Ganges itself.}}

Under the British Raj, the Gyan Vapi compound, which was once the subject of whimsical Mughal politics, got transformed into a site of perennial contestation between local Hindus and Muslims spawning numerous legal suits and even, riots.<ref name="Desai Expansion" /><ref name="Desai Order">{{Cite book |last=Desai |first=Madhuri |title=Banaras Reconstructed: Architecture and Sacred Space in a Hindu Holy City |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-295-74160-4 |pages=154–186 |chapter=Order and Antiquity |jstor=j.ctvcwnwvg.9 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnwvg.9}}</ref> Says Desai, that the construction of Gyan Vapi had sought to air an "explicitly political and visual" assertion about the Mughal command over the city’s religious sphere but instead, "transmuted Vishweshwur into the undisputed fulcrum of the city’s ritual landscape".<ref name="Desai Palimpsests" />

The 1809 riot, widely believed to be first significant riot in N. India under Company rule, hastened the growth of competitive communalism in Banaras.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pandey |first=Gyanendra |title=Subaltern Studies |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1989 |volume=VI |location=Delhi |pages=145 |chapter=The Colonial Construction of 'Communalism': British Writings on Banaras in the Nineteenth Century}}</ref> An attempt by the Hindu community to construct a shrine on the "neutral" space between the Gyanvapi Mosque and the Kashi Vishwanath Temple heightened tensions.<ref name="Eck">{{Cite book |last=L. Eck |first=Diana |title=Banaras: City of Light |publisher=Knopf |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-307-83295-5}}</ref> Soon enough, the festival of Holi and Muharram fell on the same day and confrontation by revelers fomented a riot.<ref name="Eck" /> A Muslim mob killed a cow — sacred to Hindus — to spoil the sacred water of the Gyanvapi well; a Hindu mob attempted to arson the Gyanvapi Mosque and then, demolish it.<ref name="Gaenszle" /> Several deaths were reported and property damage ran into lacs, before the [[British Raj|British]] administration quelled the riot.<ref name="Eck" /><ref>{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Desai |first=Madhuri |title=Resurrecting Banaras: Urban space, architecture and religious boundaries |publisher=[[University of California, Berkeley]] |year=2007 |id={{ProQuest|304899943}} |page=33}}</ref><ref name="Reginald_1829">{{cite book |author=Reginald Heber |url=https://archive.org/stream/narrativeofjourn01hebe#page/258/mode/2up |title=Narrative of a journey through the upper provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825 |publisher=Philadelphia, Carey, Lea & Carey |year=1829 |pages=257–258}}</ref>

In 1828, [[Baiza Bai]], widow of the Maratha ruler [[Daulat Rao Scindhia]], constructed a a pavilion around the pond — reducing it into a well — and erected a [[colonnade]] to support a roof; subsequently, Muslims were prevented from accessing the water for purposes of [[Wudu|w''udu'']] etc.<ref name="Desai Expansion" /> A statue of Nandi was installed soon afterwards. The first legal dispute seem to have arose in 1854, when the local court rejected a plea to install a new idol in the complex.<ref name=":0">{{Cite court|litigants=Din Mohammad v. Secretary of State|court=Allahabad High Court|date=1941}}</ref>{{Efn|A similar dispute reached the Court in 1858 but was settled in favor of the Hindus.}}  M. A. Sherring{{Efn|An amateur archaeologist, Sherring took to establishing Benaras as a Buddhist city of yore that had fallen to Brahminism, before felling to Muslims. Such an assertion was thought to be a potent antidote to the fashioning of Benaras as an ageless site of pilgrimage for Hindus, which hindered Missionaries' efforts in converting natives; also, if Buddhism can fell to Hinduism after centuries of glory, so could Hinduism to Christianity. Sherring noted the presence of "Buddhist pillars" within the Gyanvapi Mosque, too.}}, writing in 1868, noted the Hindus to have claimed the plinth as well as the southern wall; the Muslims were allowed to exert control over the mosque but quite reluctantly, and permitted to only use the side entrance.<ref name="MASherring_1868" />{{Efn|The Muslims had also built a gateway in the middle of the platform in front of the mosque, but were not allowed to use it.}} A [[peepal tree]] overhanging the gateway was also venerated, and Muslims were not allowed to "pluck a single leaf from it."<ref name="Desai Order" /> In 1886, adjudicating on a dispute about illegal constructions, the District Magistrate held that unlike the mosque proper, which had belonged to the Muslims exclusively, the enclosure was a common space thereby precluding any unilateral use.<ref name=":0" /> This principle would continue to decide multiple cases in the next few decades.<ref name=":0" />{{Efn|In 1887, an application by two local Muslims to open a shop at the complex-perimeter was rejected; in 1889, construction of a stone bench was allowed since it could not have been an inconvenience or a favor to either community; in 1898, Muslims were disallowed from stacking construction material in the enclosure since it hindered pedestrians; in 1904, a trough feeder for cows and a wall — constructed by Hindus— were demolished; in 1906, permission to rebuild the wall and install a new idol was rejected; in 1909, the municipality was allowed to pave a part of the enclosure.<ref name=":0" />}}

Edwin Greaves, visiting the site in 1909, found that the mosque was "not greatly used", and remained an "eyesore" to the Hindus.<ref name="Edwin_1909">{{cite book |author=Edwin Greaves |url=https://archive.org/stream/kashicityillustr00grea#page/80/mode/2up/search/gyan |title=Kashi the city illustrious, or Benares |publisher=Indian Press |year=1909 |location=Allahabad |pages=80–82}}</ref> The bull statue was highly venerated and "freely worshiped"; close to it, there were a couple of small temples dedicated to Gauri Shankar (Shiva and Parvati), and other Hindu deities.<ref name="Edwin_1909" /> The well commanded significant devotion too — pilgrims received its sacred water from a priest, who sat on an adjoining stone-screen; the well was also covered with iron-rails to prevent suicides and devotees were not allowed direct access to the water.<ref name="Edwin_1909" /> In the meanwhile, legal disputes continued unabated.<ref name=":0" />{{Efn|In 1921, a plinth was allowed to be constructed for the Peepal tree; in 1923, Muslims were prohibited from storing poultry in the enclosure; in 1924, Muslims were ordered to remove a temporary barricade; in 1925, a shed was constructed over the ablution tank to prevent droppings from the peepal tree contaminating the water.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Lazzaretti |first=Vera |url= |title=Spaces of Religion in Urban South Asia |date= |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-000-33141-7 |editor-last=Keul |editor-first=István |edition= |pages=90-91 |language=en |chapter=Demolitions, dream projects and the negotiation of Hinduness in Banaras |doi=10.4324/9781003106067-7}}</ref> etc.}}  

The site continues to remain volatile and witness periodic flare-up of communal tensions.<ref name="Searle-Chatterjee" /><ref name="Eck" /> Beginning 1984, the [[Vishva Hindu Parishad]] (VHP) along with Hindu Nationalists engaged in a nation-wide campaign to reclaim the sites of the mosques constructed by demolishing Hindu temples including the Gyanvapi.<ref name="Dumper"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Casolari |first=Marzia |date=2002 |title=Role of Benares in Constructing Political Hindu Identity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4411986 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=37 |issue=15 |pages=1413–1420 |jstor=4411986 |issn=0012-9976}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chapple |first1=Christopher Key |title=Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water |last2=Tucker |first2=Mary Evelyn |date=2000 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-945454-26-7 |pages=386}}</ref> After the [[demolition of the Babri Masjid |demolition of the Babri mosque]] in December 1992, tensions increased and about a thousand policemen were deployed to prevent a similar incident at the Gyanvapi.<ref name="BBC_cracking_2004">{{cite news |title = Cracking India's Muslim vote |author = Sanjoy Majumder |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3564693.stm |work = BBC News |location = Uttar Pradesh |date = 2004-03-25}}</ref> The [[Bharatiya Janata Party]] leaders (who had supported the demand for "reclaiming" [[Babri Masjid|Babri mosque]]) however opposed VHP's demand this time, on the grounds that the Gyanvapi Mosque was actively used.<ref name="Katju2003">{{cite book |author=Manjari Katju |title=Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b70nKb-8YuMC&pg=PA114 |date=1 January 2003 |publisher=Orient Blackswan |isbn=978-81-250-2476-7 |pages=113–114}}</ref>

A title-dispute suit was filed in the Varanasi Civil Court in 1991 for handing over the site to Hindu community; it sought to bypass the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 (henceforth PoW), which was already in force.<ref name="Decoding">

Taskin Bismee, [https://theprint.in/theprint-essential/decoding-the-kashi-vishwanath-gyanvapi-dispute-and-why-varanasi-court-has-ordered-asi-survey/637411/ Decoding the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi dispute, and why Varanasi court has ordered ASI survey], The Print, 10 April 2021.

</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Venkataramanan |first=K. |date=2019-11-17 |title=What does the Places of Worship Act protect? |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/what-does-the-places-of-worship-act-protect/article29993190.ece |issn=0971-751X}}</ref>{{efn|The [[Ayodhya dispute]] was stated as an exception to the provision since it was already being litigated when the law was passed.}} In 1996, VHP appealed to the Hindus to gather in large number on the occasion of Mahashivaratri; it was met with a poor response and the occasion passed without any untoward incident.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Engineer |first=Asghar Ali |date=1997 |title=Communalism and Communal Violence, 1996 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4405088 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=32 |issue=7 |pages=324 |jstor=4405088 |issn=0012-9976}}</ref> In 1998, the court ruled that the suit was indeed barred by the PoW act.<ref name="Yamunan">{{Cite web |last=Yamunan |first=Sruthisagar |title=Analysis: Could ASI survey of Gyanvapi mosque lead to it being exempted from Places of Worship Act? |url=https://scroll.in/article/992086/analysis-could-asi-survey-of-gyanvapi-mosque-lead-to-it-being-exempted-from-places-of-worship-act |work=Scroll.in}}</ref> A revision petition was subsequently moved before the district court who allowed it and asked the civil court to adjudicate the dispute, afresh.<ref name="Yamunan"/> The mosque management committee successfully challenged this allowance in the [[Allahabad High Court]], who stayed the proceedings.<ref name="Decoding"/>

Access to the mosque remains prohibited for non-Muslims, photography is prohibited, approaching alleys have light police-pickets (alongside [[Rapid Action Force|RAF units]]), the walls are fenced with barbed wire, and a watchtower exists too.<ref name="Dumper" /><ref name="Madhuri_2003" /> The mosque is neither well-used nor embedded enough in the cultural life of the city.<ref name="Dumper" />

The court-case remained pending for 22 years, before the advocate of the 1991 petition refiled another plea requesting for an ASI survey of the mosque-complex on the same grounds.<ref name="Decoding"/><ref name="HC to hear">{{cite news |author=Jitendra Sarin |date=8 May 2017 |title=Allahabad HC to hear Vishwanath temple, Gyanvapi mosque dispute on May 10 |newspaper=Hindustan Times |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/lucknow/allahabad-hc-to-hear-vishwanath-temple-gyanvapi-mosque-dispute-on-may-10/story-ZIeMckmfkoYSETGLRA943H.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=SINGH |first=JAS |date=2015 |title=India's Right Turn |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44214230 |journal=World Policy Journal |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=94 |doi=10.1177/0740277515591547 |jstor=44214230 |issn=0740-2775}}</ref> The temple had allegedly existed for thousands of years (since the reign of a Vikramaditya) before being demolished by Aurangzeb; this was apparently proved by the continuous presence of [[Lingam]] among other features and Hindus were deprived of their religious right to offer water to ''lingam''s.<ref name="Decoding"/> The Gyanvapi mosque management committee ''Anjuman Intezamia Masjid'' (AIM) acting as the defendant denied the claims and rejected that Aurangzeb demolished a temple to construct the mosque.<ref name="Revives">[https://thewire.in/law/varanasi-court-allows-asi-survey-of-gyanvapi-mosque-next-to-kashi-vishwanath-temple Court Revives Dormant Dispute, asks ASI to Survey Gyanvapi Mosque Next to Kashi Vishwanath Temple], The Wire, 10 April 2021.</ref> In March 2019, a few local residents were caught burying a small statue of [[Nandi (Hinduism)|Nandi]] near the north wall of the Gyanvapi mosque.<ref name="Sushil">{{cite news |last1=Kumar |first1=Sushil |title=How Modi's Kashi Vishwanath Corridor is laying the ground for another Babri incident |work=The Caravan |url=https://caravanmagazine.in/religion/how-modi-kashi-vishwanath-corridor-is-laying-the-ground-for-another-babri-incident}}</ref>

On 8 April 2021, the city-court ordered the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] to conduct the requested survey.<ref name="Decoding"/> In addition, a five-member committee comprising experts in archaeology was asked to be constituted, with two members from the "minority community" to determine whether any temple existed at the site, prior to the mosque.<ref name="Decoding"/><ref name="Revives"/> Most commentators opined the court's ruling to run up against the PoW act and other matters of law.<ref>Shrutisagar Yamunan, [https://scroll.in/article/991831/why-up-court-order-asking-asi-to-survey-kashi-gyanvapi-mosque-complex-is-legally-unsound Why UP court order asking ASI to survey Kashi-Gyanvapi mosque complex is legally unsound], Scroll.in, 10 April 2021.</ref> The very same day, a challenge was filed by the defendants in the Allahabad High Court.<ref name=":16">{{Cite web |last=Upadhyay |first=Sparsh |date=2021-09-09 |title=Gyanvapi Mosque Dispute: Allahabad High Court Stays Varanasi Court's ASI Survey Order & Other Proceedings |url=https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/gyanvapi-mosque-dispute-allahabad-high-court-stays-varanasi-courts-asi-survey-order-other-proceedings-181256 |work=Live Law}}</ref> On 9 September, the High Court ruled in favor of the defendants; the survey was indefinitely stayed and the judgement criticized for breach of judicial decorum.<ref name=":16"/>

== External links==

{{Commons category}}

*[https://news.abplive.com/explainers/gyanvapi-masjid-case-explained-controversy-shringar-gauri-temple-history-court-cases-decision-highlights-1531253/amp Gyanvapi Mosque history] at [[ABP News]]