Survey finds mosque in India's Varanasi was built over temple - Hindu petitioners

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Survey finds mosque in India's Varanasi was built over temple - Hindu petitioners

By Saurabh Sharma
January 26, 2024 4:29 AM EST Updated 15 hours ago

LUCKNOW, India, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found that a 17th century mosque in one of Hinduism's holiest cities was built after destroying a Hindu temple that existed there, a lawyer for Hindu petitioners said, a possible new flashpoint in a decades-long dispute.

Muslim lawyers in the legal case being heard in the city of Varanasi disputed the comments by the lawyer for the Hindu petitioners but did not give details.

The Gyanvapi mosque is in Varanasi, which is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency.

Reuters has not seen the full ASI report, copies of which were shared only with the petitioners in the case. The regional office of the ASI in Uttar Pradesh state, where Varanasi is located, declined comment.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/india/survey-finds-mosque-indias-varanasi-was-built-over-temple-hindu-petitioners-2024-01-26/

Alternate no-paywall link: https://news.yahoo.com/survey-finds-mosque-indias-varanasi-092626391.html

[Igel]

1. Wouldn't be a surprise.

New religions tend to coopt the locations of previous temples or special places.

Some just take over the buildings and repurpose them.

I think this possibility was alleged or suspected or merely posited when the mosque was destroyed.