Hindu Temples What happened to them?

Hindu Temples What happened to them?

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• Date: 11 Jan 2007 19:19:01 −0800

HINDU TEMPLES WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM

http://www.voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/ch2.htm

Chapter Two
The Tip of An Iceberg
Sita Ram Goel

The mention made by Maulana Abdul Hai (Indian Express, February 5) of

Hindu temples turned into mosques, is only the tip of an iceberg, The
iceberg itself lies submerged in the writings of medieval Muslim
historians, accounts of foreign travellers and the reports of the
Archaeological Survey of India. A hue and cry has been raised in the
name of secularism and national integration whenever the iceberg has
chanced to surface, inspite of hectic efforts to keep it suppressed.
Marxist politicians masquerading as historians have been the major
contributors to this conspiracy of silence.

Muslim politicians and scholars in present−day India resent any

reference whatsoever to the destruction of Hindu temples in medieval
times. They react as if it is a canard being spread by those they
stigmatise as Hindu communalists. There was, however, a time, not so
long ago, when their predecessors viewed the same performance as an act
of piety and proclaimed it with considerable pride in inscriptions and
literary compositions. Hindus of medieval India hardly wrote any
history of what happened to their places of worship at the hands of
Islamic iconoclasts. Whatever evidence the "Hindu communalists"
cite in this context comes entirely from Islamic sources, epigraphic
and literary.

Epigraphic Evidence

There are many mosques all over India which are known to local
tradition and the Archaeological Survey of India as built on the site
of and, quite frequently, from the materials of, demolished Hindu
temples. Most of them carry inscriptions invoking Allah and the
Prophet, quoting the Quran and giving details of when, how and by whom
they were constructed. The inscriptions have been deciphered and
connected to their historical context by learned Muslim epigraphists.

Hindu Temples What happened to them? 1

 Hindu Temples What happened to them?
They have been published by the, Archaeological Survey of India in its
Epigraphia Indica−Arabic and Persian Supplement, an annual which
appeared first in 1907−08 as Epigraphia Indo−Moslemica. The following
few inscriptions have been selected in order to show that (1)
destruction of Hindu temples continued throughout the period of Muslim
domination; (2) it covered all parts of India−east, west, north and
south; and (3) all Muslim dynasties, imperial and provincial,
participated in the "pious performance."

1. Quwwat al−Islam Masjid, Qutb Minar, Delhi: "This fort was

conquered and the Jami Masjid built in the year 587 by the Amir... the
slave of the Sultan, may Allalh strengthen his helpers. The materials
of 27 idol temples, on each of which 2,000,000 Delhiwals had been spent
were used in the (construction of) the mosque..." (1909−10, Pp 3−4).
The Amir was Qutbud−Din Aibak, slave of Muizzud−Din Muhammad Ghori. The
year 587 H. corresponds to 1192 A.D. "Delhiwal" was a
high−denomination coin current at that time in Delhi.

2. Masjid at Manvi in the Raichur District of Karnataka: "Praise be

to Allah that by the decree of the Parvardigar, a mosque has been
converted out of a temple as a sign of religion in the reign of... the
Sultan who is the asylum of Faith ... Firuz Shah Bahmani who is the
cause of exuberant spring in the garden of religion" (1962, Pp.
56−57). The inscription mentions the year 1406−07 A.D. as the time of
construction.

3. Jami Masjid at Malan, Palanpur Taluka, Banaskantha District of

Gujarat: "The Jami Masjid was built... by Khan−I−Azam Ulugh Khan...
who suppressed the wretched infidels. He eradicated the idolatrous
houses and mine of infidelity, along with the idols... with the edge of
the sword, and made ready this edifice... He made its walls and doors
out of the idols; the back of every stone became the place for
prostration of the believer" (1963, Pp. 26−29). The date of
construction is mentioned as 1462 A.D. in the reign of Mahmud Shah I
(Begada) of Gujarat.

4. Hammam Darwaza Masjid at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh: "Thanks that by

the guidance of the Everlasting and the Living (Allah), this house of
infidelity became the niche of prayer. As a reward for that, the
Generous Lord constructed an abode for the builder in paradise"
(1969, p. 375). Its chronogram yields the year 1567 A.D. in the reign
of Akbar, the Great Mughal. A local historian, Fasihud−Din, tells us
that the temple had been built earlier by Diwan Lachhman Das, an
official of the Mughal government.

5. Jami Masjid at Ghoda in the Poona District of Maharashtra: "O

Hindu Temples What happened to them? 2

 Hindu Temples What happened to them?
Allah! 0 Muhammad! O Ali! When Mir Muhammad Zaman made up his mind, he
opened the door of prosperity on himself by his own hand. He
demolished thirty−three idol temples (and) by divine grace laid the
foundation of a building in this abode of perdition" (1933−34, p.24).
The inscription is dated 1586 A.D. when the Poona region was ruled by
the Nizam Shahi sultans of Ahmadnagar.

6. Gachinala Masjid at Cumbum in the Kurnool District of Andhra

Pradesh: "He is Allah, may he be glorified... During the august rule
of... Muhammad Shah, there was a well−established idol−house in
Kuhmum... Muhammad Salih who prospers in the rectitude of the affairs
of Faith... razed to the ground, the edifice of the idol−house and
broke the idols in a manly fashion. He constructed on its site a
suitable mosque, towering above the buildings of all" (1959−60, Pp.
64−66). The date of construction is mentioned as 1729−30 A.D. in the
reign of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah.

Though sites of demolished Hindu temples were mostly used for building
mosques and idgahs, temple materials were often used in other Muslim
monuments as well. Archaeologists have discovered such materials,
architectural as well as sculptural, in quite a few forts, palaces,
maqbaras, sufi khanqahs, madrasas, etc. In Srinagar, Kashmir, temple
materials can be seen in long stretches of the stone embankments on
both sides of the Jhelum. Two inscriptions on the walls of the Gopi
Talav, a stepped well at Surat, tell us that the well was constructed
by Haidar Quli, the Mughal governor of Gujarat, in 1718 A.D. in the
reign of Farrukh Siyar. One of them says, "its bricks were taken
from an idol temple." The other informs us that "Haider Quli Khan,
during whose period tyranny has become extinct, laid waste several idol
temples in order to make this strong building firm..." (1933−34, Pp.
37−44).

Literary Evidence

Literary evidence of Islamic iconoclasm vis−a−vis Hindu places of

worship is far more extensive. It covers a longer span of time, from
the fifth decade of the 7th century to the closing years of the
eighteenth. It also embraces a larger space, from Transoxiana in the
north to Tamil Nadu in the south, and from Afghanistan in the west to
Assam in the east. Marxist "historians" and Muslim apologists
would have us believe that medieval Muslim annalists were indulging in
poetic exaggerations in order to please their pious patrons.
Archaeological explorations in modern times have, however, provided
physical proofs of literary descriptions. The vast cradle of Hindu
culture is literally littered with ruins of temples and monasteries
belonging to all sects of Sanatana Dharma − Buddhist, Jain, Saiva,
Shakta, Vaishnava and the rest.

Hindu Temples What happened to them? 3

 Hindu Temples What happened to them?

Almost all medieval Muslim historians credit their heroes with

desecration of Hindu idols and/or destruction of Hindu temples. The
picture that emerges has the following components, depending upon
whether the iconoclast was in a hurry on account of Hindu resistance or
did his work at leisure after a decisive victory:

1. The idols were mutilated or smashed or burnt or melted down if they

were made of precious metals.

2. Sculptures in relief on walls and pillars were disfigured or scraped

away or torn down.

3. Idols of stone and inferior metals or their pieces were taken away,
sometimes by cartloads, to be thrown down before the main mosque in (a)
the metropolis of the ruling Muslim sultan and (b) the holy cities of
Islam, particularly Mecca, Medina and Baghdad.

4. There were instances of idols being turned into lavatory seats or

handed over to butchers to be used as weights while selling meat.

5. Brahmin priests and other holy men in and around the temple were
molested or murdered.

6. Sacred vessels and scriptures used in worship were defiled and

scattered or burnt.

7. Temples were damaged or despoiled or demolished or burnt down or

converted into mosques with some structural alterations or entire
mosques were raised on the same sites mostly with temple materials.

8. Cows were slaughtered on the temple sites so that Hindus could not
use them again.

The literary sources, like epigraphic, provide evidence of the elation

which Muslims felt while witnessing or narrating these "pious
deeds." A few citations from Amir Khusru will illustrate the point.
The instances cited relate to the doings of Jalalud−Din Firuz Khalji,
Alaud−Din Khalji and the letter's military commanders. Khusru served
as a court−poet of sex successive sultans at Delhi and wrote a masnavi
in praise of each. He was the dearest disciple of Shaikh Nizamud−Din
Awliya and has come to be honoured as some sort of a sufi himself. In
our own times, he is being hailed is the father of a composite
Hindu−Muslim culture and the pioneer of secularism. Dr. R. C.
Majumdar, whom the Marxists malign as a "communalist historian"
names him as a "liberal Muslim".

1. Jhain: "Next morning he (Jalalud−Din) went again to the temples

and ordered their destruction... While the soldiers sought every
opportunity of plundering, the Shah was engaged in burning the temples
and destroying the idols. There were two bronze idols of Brahma, each
of which weighed more than a thousand mans. These were broken into

Hindu Temples What happened to them? 4

 Hindu Temples What happened to them?

pieces and the fragments were distributed among the officers, with
orders to throw them down at the gates of the Masjid on their return
(to Delhi)" (Miftah−ul−Futuh).

2. Devagiri: "He (Alaud−Din) destroyed the temples of the idolaters

and erected pulpits and arches for mosques" (Ibid.).

3. Somanath: "They made the temple prostrate itself towards the

Kaaba. You may say that the temple first offered its prayers and then
had a bath (i.e. the temple was made to topple and fall into the
sea)... He (Ulugh Khan) destroyed all the idols and temples, but sent
one idol, the biggest of all idols, to the court of his Godlike Majesty
and on that account in that ancient stronghold of idolatry, the summons
to prayers was proclaimed so loudly that they heard it in Misr (Egypt)
and Madain (Iraq)" (Tarikh−i−Alai).

4. Delhi: "He (Alaud−Din) ordered the circumference of the new minar

to be made double of the old one (Qutb Minar)... The stones were dug
out from the hills and the temples of the infidels were demolished to
furnish a supply" (Ibid.).

5. Ranthambhor: "This strong fort was taken by the slaughter of the

stinking Rai. Jhain was also captured, an iron fort, an ancient abode
of idolatry, and a new city of the people of the faith arose. The
temple of Bahir (Bhairava) Deo and temples of other gods, were all
razed to the ground" (Ibid.).

6. Brahmastpuri (Chidambaram): "Here he (Malik Kafur) heard that in

Bramastpuri there was a golden idol... He then determined on razing the
temple to the ground... It was the holy place of the Hindus which the
Malik dug up from its foundations with the greatest care, and the heads
of brahmans and idolaters danced from their necks and fell to the
ground at their feet, and blood flowed in torrents. The stone idols
called Ling Mahadeo, which had been established a long time at the
place and on which the women of the infidels rubbed their vaginas for
(sexual) satisfaction, these, up to this time, the kick of the horse of
Islam had not attempted to break. The Musulmans destroyed in the lings
and Deo Narain fell down, and other gods who had fixed their seats
there raised feet and jumped so high that at one leap they reached the
fort of Lanka, and in that affright the lings themselves would have
fled had they had any legs to stand on" (Ibid).

7. Madura: "They found the city empty for the Rai had fled with the
Ranis, but had left two or three hundred elephants in the temple of
Jagnar (Jagannatha). The elephants were captured and the temple
burnt" (Ibid.).

8. Fatan: (Pattan): "There was another rai in these parts ...a

Brahmin named Pandya Guru... his capital was Fatan, where there was a
temple with an idol in it laden with jewels. The rai fled when the

Hindu Temples What happened to them? 5

 Hindu Temples What happened to them?
army of the Sultan arrived at Fatan... They then struck the idol with
an iron hatchet, and opened its head. Although it was the very Qibla
of the accursed infidels, it kissed the earth and filled the holy
treasury" (Ashiqa).

9. Ma'bar: (Parts of South India): "On the right hand and on the
left hand the army has conquered from sea to sea, and several capitals
of the gods of the Hindus, in which Satanism has prevailed since the
time of the Jinns, have been demolished. All these impurities of
infidelity have been cleansed by the Sultan's destruction of
idol−temples, beginning with his first holy expedition to Deogir, so
that the flames of the light of the Law (of Islam) illumine all these
unholy countries, and places for the criers of prayers are exalted on
high, and prayers are read in mosques. Allah be praised!"
(Tarikh−i−Alai).

The story of how Islamic invaders sought to destroy the very

foundations of Hindu society and culture is long and extremely painful.
It would certainly be better for everybody to forget the past, but for
the prescriptions of Islamic theology which remain intact and make it
obligatory for believers to destroy idols and idol temples.

Indian Express, February 19, 1989

Hindu Temples What happened to them? 6