A “scientific survey,” using modern techniques including carbon dating of a shivling that was allegedly discovered at the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi during a videographic survey last year, was mandated by the Allahabad High Court on Friday.
The Varanasi Court’s October 14 ruling, which denied their request to conduct a scientific investigation of the “Shiva Linga” to ascertain its age, was challenged by four women Hindu devotees. The Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra-I bench granted their revision request yesterday.
(Image source- Live law)
In a statement to the media, petitioners’ advocate Hari Shanker Jain said
“The HC has agreed to our prayers for a scientific probe of the Shivling. The court has ordered that without any damage to the Shivling analysis and study of it, it be done”.
“The court has set aside the order passed by the District Judge, Varanasi. The District Judge had rejected our prayer for carbon dating analysis and other scientific surveys of the Shivling,” Jain said.
About the Gyanvapi Case Controversy-
A group of priests from Varanasi petitioned the court in 1991, a year before the Babri Masjid was demolished, asking for permission to conduct religious services on the grounds of the Gyanvapi mosque.
The Kashi Vishwanath Mandir-Gyanvapi Masjid case was brought before a Varanasi court thirty years later, in 2021, and the Allahabad High Court suspended the Varanasi court’s proceedings in order to halt a contentious archaeological survey of the site to ascertain whether a Hindu temple was partially demolished to construct the 17th-century mosque.
Following the plea, a Varanasi court ordered a video assessment of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in April. The survey was concluded on May 16, 2022.
The Gyanvapi mosque’s structure that was found inside it is thought by the Hindu side to be shivling. It is described as a fountain by the Anjuman Islamia Masjid, which oversees the mosque. The case’s origins, which have given rise to several legal disputes, may be traced back to a lawsuit brought in a local court by five Hindu women who wanted unrestricted daily access to the Gyanvapi complex so they could worship Shringar Gauri and other nearby deities.
