BHOPAL, India — The Madhya Pradesh High Court has declared the disputed Bhojshala complex in India’s Madhya Pradesh state to be a temple of the Hindu goddess Saraswati, ruling Friday in favor of Hindu petitioners.
A bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi delivered the verdict. The court observed that evidence showed Bhojshala had been a center of Sanskrit learning and a temple to Saraswati. “We have noted that the continuity of Hindu worship at this site has never been broken,” the court said. “It is established from historical literature that the character of the disputed area was that of Bhojshala, which was a center of Sanskrit learning associated with King Bhoja of the Paramara dynasty.” The court called on the Muslim community to petition the state government for the allocation of separate land in the district to build a mosque.
The Hindu community considers Bhojshala to be a temple of Saraswati built by King Bhoja. The Muslim side claims the site has been used as the Kamal Maula Mosque for centuries. Under a 2003 agreement with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Hindus and Muslims worship at the site on Tuesdays and Fridays respectively. The Hindu side challenged the arrangement in the High Court and demanded exclusive worship rights to the complex.
On March 11, 2024, the High Court directed the ASI to conduct a scientific survey of the Bhojshala temple-Kamal Maula Mosque complex. The ASI began its survey on March 22 that year and submitted its report to the court after a detailed 98-day survey. The report said a large structure from the era of the Paramara kings of Dhar predated the mosque, and that the current disputed structure was built using reused parts of the temple.
The Hindu side argued that coins, sculptures and inscriptions recovered during the ASI scientific survey proved the site was originally a temple. The Muslim side argued in court that the ASI survey report was biased and had been prepared to support the Hindu petitioners’ claims.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report