A lawyer has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to seek a scientific survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at the Krishmabhoomi Janamsthan In Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.
Mathura is believed to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Krishna, an incarnation of Hindu God Vishnu. The Shahi-Idgah masjid complex is adjacent to the Hindu temples and is on or near the site of a temple razed in the medieval period.
Advocate Sarthak Chaturvedi said that the "basic foundation" of the structure is on the temple and a survey along the lines of the one being conducted at Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi would clear things.
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"We have demanded that an ASI's scientific survey of Shrikrishna janmabhoomi should be conducted. We have filed an SLP (special leave petition) for an order like the one issued for the Gyanvapi Mosque's survey. We want the place to be surveyed. There are a lot of problems, such as a generator or a well there, and the basic foundation is on a temple, so the survey would bring clarity," said Chaturvedi in Hindi in a vide shared by PTI.
Currently, ASI is conducting a scientific survey through non-invasive techniques at the Gyanvpai Mosque in Varanasi. A petition had sought the survey and the court approved it. The Gyanvapi survey petition stemmed from an earlier petition filed by five Hindu devotees to pray daily before the idols on the outer wall of the mosque. The temple is close to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath temple, which was also razed during the medieval period and was rebuilt later.
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Earlier, too, petitions have been filed related to the Mathura case along the lines of pleas filed in Gyanvapi.
The cases of Varanasi and Mathura are politically sensitive as Hindutva groups have clubbed the two places where temples were razed in the medieval period along with the case of Ayodhya where a Ram Mandir is being built after a landmark Supreme Court judgement in 2019. "Ayodhya to ek jhanki hai, Mathura-Kashi baaki hai (Ayodhya is just a glimpse, Kashi and Mathura are left)" was a popular slogan during the peak of the Ram Mandir movement.
The temples at Mathura and Varanasi were most notably razed during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
"A number of temples such as the famous Vishwanath at Banaras, and the temple of Keshava Rai at Mathura built by Bir Singh Deo Bundle in the reign of Jahangir were destroyed and mosques erected in their place. The destruction of these temples had a political motive as well," writes historian Satish Chandra in book Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals (1526-1748).
