98 "Presenting" the Past
Samudragupta in 280 B.C.E. and finished by Chandragupta II in 268 B.C.E.
Even the Taj Mahal is said to have been a Shiva temple known as "Tejo
Mahalyaya," built in the fourth century C.E., and Shahjahan made it into
a mausoleum by removing the idols, putting them away at the basement,
and erecting the outer walls. There are all kinds of other historical build-
ings, such as the Jama Masjid in Delhi, that the sants lay a claim on. In fact,
the VHP has prepared a list of some 2,000 "Muslim monuments which
stand on the sites and/or have been built with the materials of Hindu
temples, and which we wish to recall as witnesses to the role of Islam as a
religion and the character of Muslim rule in medieval India."^103
There have been several temple/mosque controversies and conflicts in
independent India, and the building preoccupation of the whole subconti-
nent is quite astounding. One of the first things done in independent India
was the decision of Sardar Patel on November 13,1947, to reconstruct the
Somnath temple that had been destroyed by Mahmud Ghazni. On May 11,
1951, President Rajendra Prasad, despite Prime Minister Nehru's protest,
installed the idol in the temple amid chants of Vedic hymns and rituals.
The Ahmedabad riot of 1969 that claimed 2,000 to 3,000 lives and millions
of rupees worth of property had its roots in a temple building. A stray inci-
dent between a few Hindu sadhus (monks) and a group of Muslim young-
sters in a Muslim celebration next to the Jaganath temple led to a battle,
and "a stray bottle seems to have struck the glass-case containing the
sacred 'murti'" of the temple. The Hindu Sangram Samiti (Hindu Struggle
Committee) circulated a handbill saying, "Muslims have meanly attacked
Ahmedabad's famous Jaganathji Temple and desecrated idols. Muslims
are repeating history At the time of Indo-Pak war (1965) Muslims bom-
barded India's old Dwarika temple and damaged it. In Pakistan all remain-
ing temples were razed to the ground and idols of gods and goddesses
were desecrated and they were used as step-stones in mosques."^104 Two of
the most tumultuous events in independent India's history had to do with
buildings. The first one was the Indian army's attack on the Golden Tem-
ple at Amritsar in June 1984 that led to the assassination of Indira Gandhi
and a Congress (I) backlash on the Sikhs in Delhi and around India. The
demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6,1992, was the second that
caused widespread riot all over the subcontinent and the destruction or
damage of hundreds of temples in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The three most prominent disputed shrines with which the Hindutva
forces are currently preoccupied are the Ramjanmabhumi-Babri Masjid
in Ayodhya, the Krishnajanmasthan-Shahi Idgah in Mathura, and the
Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi. It is a popular belief that
the original Krishnajanmasthan temple was located at the precise spot
of Krishna's birth—the prison cell of his evil uncle Kamsa. Mahmud of
Ghazni burned the temple to the ground and carried off its wealth when
he invaded in 1017. The Keshavadev temple was rebuilt in 1150 but was