Is It Shivling Or Fountain In Gyanvapi Mosque?

The Supreme Court on Thursday will hear a petition challenging the Varanasi civil court-mandated survey of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi. Gyanvapi survey report by the court-mandated committee will be submitted to the civil court today. A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and P S Narasimha will hear the matter today.

After the videography survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid Complex, the Hindu side advocates claimed that shivling was found inside the well. An advocate from the Hindu side, Madan Mohan Yadav claimed that the shivling is 12 feet by 8 inches in diameter. Gyanvapi Mosque is present adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi.

A survey is going on to find out the truth behind the claims of the presence of Hindu symbols of worship in the mosque complex. Five Delhi-based women - Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu, Rakhi Singh, and others filed a plea seeking permission for daily prayers before the idols of Hindu deities on its outer wall.

After the shivling was found, the Muslim side says that in the mosques of the Mughal era, there was a tradition of putting a fountain inside the Wuzukhana. Some of the netizens are tweeting that it is not shivling but it is a fountain. 

According to the India Today report, RS Singh, a professor at IIT-BHU chemical engineering department, said, "I personally feel it is a shivling, but some people are claiming it is a fountain because there is a fountain-like structure on its tip. The upper part of it is white while the rest of the shivling is blackish. It seems someone put something on its top to make it look like a fountain. If we consider it a fountain, there was no electricity years ago and people used to pour water from a great height and the area would take a different shape, but the Gyanvapi premises never had this kind of a system. I can see that someone has put white cement on the shivling."

He further stated that "It is not an easy task to ascertain whether it is made of emerald or not. It looks very old and it has been in the water for a long time."

He also said that King Todar Mal, the finance minister of the Mughal empire during emperor Akbar's reign, had constructed the temple and it is around 415 years ago. There was no electricity at that time.

IIT-BHU material science associate professor Chandan Upadhyay said, "Only a scientific operation can ascertain if it is a shivling or a fountain."

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