260. identity
A very different kind of stone stood at the site of the erstwhile mosque itself. This
bit of rubble was claimed to be truly indigenous and had been raised to the status of
an altar. Still there today, it is a segment of a pillar that is said to have emerged from
the walls of the Babri Mosque during its destruction. The claim is that the mosque ’s
builders cannibalized it from an earlier temple that stood on the site until Muslims
destroyed it. Despite vigorous denials in important scholarly circles, this and related
matters were still being debated two years later, so intensely that the argument dis-
rupted the proceedings of the world archaeological conference held in Delhi in De-
cember 1994. There is no way to prove the cannibalization theory from the pillar it-
self. In the Pala style, with no distinguishing iconography, it could as well have
come from a Jain temple as from a Hindu one. That is significant, for there was a
time when the Jain presence in Ayodhya was more impressive than the Hindu, al-
though you’d never know it from the rhetoric of Hindu revivalism today.
So much for “Hindu” rubble. But where is the Muslim rubble? Where is the rest
of the mosque? Some say the vast Hindu crowd took it away piece by piece, as sou-
venirs and objects of veneration. This sounds plausible. The cause of Rama would
have transvalued these infidel stones into holy relics, and pilgrims are notorious for
dispersing such sacra. Yet many of the blocks that made the mosque were reputedly
enormous. Where did they go?
One answer was offered by a judge whom I met in Ayodhya in early 1993. Re-
cently retired from the Lucknow branch of the provincial High Court, he had come
with a high police officer to worship in one of Ayodhya’s many temples. He ex-
plained that the disappearance of the great stones was—well—inexplicable. Refer-
ring to the monkey god who is Rama’s greatest devotee and the very image of
strength and speed, he said, “It was all Hanuman’s miracle. For a huge mosque like
that to come down in a few hours—with tridents and pickaxes! And now no trace!
What can it be but Hanuman’s miracle?”
Perhaps we should not be surprised to find a well-educated, English-speaking
judge invoking the miraculous. We have already alluded to the Lucknow court ’s
role in the Ayodhya controversy, and a full account would make for a pained and
convoluted story. It would be understandable if the judge hoped, in some corner of
his consciousness, that this record might helpfully be set straight by the intervening
hand of God.
Nor should we be surprised to find a high-ranking police officer at prayer beside
him. In that part of India, the force has been overwhelmingly Hindu by design since
shortly after independence, and by everyone ’s account it played a major part in al-
lowing the mosque to be destroyed. Although the commanding officer tried to pro-