'Gyanvapi not a mosque because...': Hindu petitioners cite Aurangzeb's 'April 9, 1669 order'

New Delhi: Aurangzeb had ordered demolition of Lord Adi Visheshwar temple on April 9, 1669, but didn't pass any order to create a waqf over the land or handed over the land to any Muslim or Muslim body, the Hindu petitioners told the Supreme Court on Thursday. Citing the so-far unverified fact, they contended that Varanasi's Gyanvapi mosque doesn't legally qualify as a mosque. The submission was made in response to the petitions filed against the Varanasi court's order sealing the area of the Gyanvapi mosque, where a shivling had allegedly been found. The court will hear the petition filed by the Muslim side today. 

"The historians have confirmed that Islamic ruler Aurangzeb had issued an order on April 9, 1669 directing his administration to demolish the temple of Lord Adi Visheshwar at Varanasi. There is nothing on record to establish that the then ruler or any subsequent ruler has passed any order to create a waqf over the land in question or for handing over the land to any Muslim or body of Muslims. The copy of farmaan/order issued by Aurangzeb is reported to be maintained by Asiatic Library Kolkata," the respondents pleaded in response filed by their lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain.

The petitioners said a mosque can only be constructed on the property dedicated to waqf by waqif, the owner of the property. A construction made under orders of any Muslim ruler on a land that originally belonged to a temple, cannot be deemed as mosque, they added. 

"A waqf can be created only on the land dedicated to waqf by wakif who is owner of the land. In the instant case, it is clear that from the time immemorial the land and property belong to the deity and therefore there can be no mosque thereat," it added.

The respondents claimed that the Adi Visheshwar temple had faced attacks starting from 1193 till 1669, when it was demolished.

They said Adi Visheshwar was among 12 Jyotirlings, which have been described in vedas, purans, upanishads and shastras as very important to the Hindu religion. 

The respondents also alleged that the property in question does not belong to any waqf and it had already vested in deity Adi Visheshwara much before the start of the British calendar year and is continuing to be the property of the deity.

They called Aurangzeb a 'champion in destruction of Hindu temples, and said he ordered destruction of several temples in Kashi and Mathura. 

"The administration complied with the order and demolished a portion of temple of the Adi Visheshwar at Varanasi and later on a construction was raised which they alleged 'Gyanvapi Mosque' but they could not change the religious charter of Hindu temple as the idol of Goddess Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesh and other associate deities continued in the same building complex," they claimed.

The Varanasi court had ordered a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi mosque after a group of petitioners claimed presence of Shringar Gauri's portrait inside the mosque and demanded they be provided unhindered access to the deity. The Hindu side later claimed a shivling was found inside the mosque during the survey. The Muslim side claimed the structure was a fountain, not a shivling. They moved the Supreme Court against the Varanasi court's order.

With inputs from IANS