Author: V Sundaram
Publication: News Today
Date: May 6, 2006
URL: http://www.newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06may/0605ss1.htm
Bijamandal Temple at Vidisha is one of massive
dimensions comparable with Konarak in Orissa. It was desecrated again and
again since the days of Sultan Shamsuddeen Iltutmish who first indulged in
his iconoclasm at this site. Then followed Allaudin Kilji. His record was
bettered by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. Finally came Aurangazeb Alamgir a renowned
champion of human compassion and deathless humanity.
During one night in the monsoon of 1991, there
was heavy rain at a small town called Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, 40 kilometres
from Bopal. The downpour was so heavy that it washed away the wall that was
concealing the frontage of the Bijamandal Mosque established by Aurangazeb
in 1682. This Masjid is a centre of attraction for the Muslims. The Muslim
clerics called it Alamgir Masjid. But for the common people of the area it
was known as Bijamandal Mosque.
The broken and capsized wall following heavy
rains in 1991, completely exposed and brought to public light so many Hindu
idols that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was left with no pseudo-secular
choice for further concealment and consignment into oblivion.
The fact to be noted is that for more than 300 years, these Hindu idols were
buried under the platform on the northern side, which was used as the Hall
of Prayer conducted especially on days of Eid. The District Collector having
control over this town in 1991, came forward to offer protection to the Surveyors
of the ASI, who were always exposed to the ever present risk of violent wrath
of bigots.
Exquisitely beautiful treasures of sculpture
were retrieved by the ASI. Many of the statues were particularly splendid,
with some of them being as high as eight feet. But the patent fact which must
be noted by all enlightened citizens in India today is that the ASI within
a month received instructions to stop further work. The officer of the ASI
working on the excavations as well as the Collector were transferred. There
was widespread public belief in all the villages around Vidisa that this was
done at the behest of the then Human Resource Development Minister at the
Centre Arjun Singh, a deathless champion of 'secularism'.
Is he not trying vigorously to re-write Indian
History in order to hide well-known facts relating to Islamic terrorism in
India after 1000 AD?
As a lover of history, I was reading a report
of inspection of this site by Sir Alexander Cunningham who was the first Director
of the Archaeological Survey of India established by Lord Canning, the Viceroy,
in 1862. He visited this site in 1874 and 1876. This is what he wrote in Volume
X of the ASI Report: Inside the town there is a stone Masjid called Bijay
Mandir, or the temple of Bijay. This Hindu name is said to have been derived
from the original temple Bijay Rani. The temple was thrown down by the order
of Aurangazeb and the present Masjid erected in its place; but the Hindus
still frequent it at the time of the annual fair. By the Musalmans it is called
'The Alamgiri Masjid', while Bhilsa (earlier name of Vidisha) itself is called
Alamgirpur. The building is 781/2 feet long by 261/2 feet broad and the roof
is supported on four rows of plain square pillars with 13 openings on front.
So much by way of non-saffron, non-communal
documentary evidence in favour of the Hindu origins of this famous Mosque
in Vidisha. It was Aurangazeb who destroyed the temple known as Bijay Mandir
and converted it into a Mosque called Bijay Mandal Mosque in 1682. Royal celebrations
were held at the site to commemorate the visit of Aurangazeb to the area and
he took the opportunity of renaming Vidisha as Alamgirpur.
Though it had been known for a long time that
Bijamandal was originally a temple, namaz at Eid time continued right up to
1965. In 1965, Dr. Dwaraka Prasad Misra was the Congress Chief Minister of
Madhya Pradesh. It was his government which banned Muslim worship in what
was a protected ASI monument. It is not surprising that Dr Dwaraka Prasad
Misra earned the gratitude of most Vidishans and others in Madhya Pradesh.
It was Dr D P Misra who displayed the requisite moral courage of halting namaz
in the edifice. The Madhya Pradesh government gave a grant of Rs 40,000 for
the construction of a separate Idgaah nearby.
About 150 years before Aurangazeb's random
act of destruction of the Bijamandal Temple at Vidisha, Sultan Bahadur Shah
of Gujarat, captured the town of Vidisha in 1526-27. The first thing he did
after capturing the town was to desecrate the Bijay Mandir, proclaiming that
the conquest of Bhilsa (Vidisha) was in the service of Islam. This fact is
recorded in Mirat-I-Sikandri. About 200 years before him, another great humanist
called Sultan Allaudin Kilji in 1293 had also enjoyed the 'devout' and 'dedicated'
pleasure of damaging the Bijay Mandir. But the supreme credit of being the
Columbus of destruction of this temple in 1234 goes to Sultan Shamsuddeen
Iltutmish.
Much of the factual information in this article
is based on a brilliant article called Four Vandals, one Temple by Gargi.
To quote Gargi in this context: Few temples have had the misfortune of getting
desecrated four times. Being a huge structure, built in solid stones, it was
able to survive and be restituted as a Mandir, three times. The ASI is still
to undo the damage perpetrated finally by Aurangazeb in 1682. Excavation work
by ASI which was stopped by Government of India in 1993-94 is yet to be resumed.
It is no doubt difficult to redeem the pristine glory of Bijay Mandir, whose
scale and dimensions are reminiscent of the Konarak Temple, but it would be
a shame if independent India allows its architectural treasures remain in
a state of desecration and buried without an attempt even to redeem them.
It is all the more unfortunate that the ASI is not being allowed to work on
the site despite pressure from local citizens.
The credit of having converted a neutral public
service organization like the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) into a
slave of Congress-sponsored historical negationism and anti-Hindu pseudo secularism
goes wholly to the Congress Party in India after independence. Let me contrast
the shameful record of the Congress Party in India after independence in the
matter of preservation of our cultural heritage and ancient monuments with
that of Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India during 1899 to 1905. He took special
interest in the Archaeological Department. It was he who was responsible for
the passing of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act in 1904.
Lord Curzon is remembered for the care he
gave to India's great monuments, not only to the new ones celebrating the
British Raj, but also India's ancient heritage, many of which were in desperate
need of conservation. He showed great sensitivity and refinement in his appreciation
of Hindu and Muslim art. He was determined to ensure that the beauty of the
past should be preserved and those monuments of historical interest and aesthetic
value in India be restored and preserved. He brushed aside the specious argument
that it was not the duty of a Christian Government to preserve the monuments
of pagan art or the sanctuaries of an alien faith. He believed that art and
beauty and the reverence that was owing to all that had evoked human genius
or had inspired human faith, were independent of particular creeds and insofar
as it touched religion, were embraced and united by the common religion of
all mankind. He wrote emphatically in this context: There is no principle
of artistic discrimination between the Mausoleum of the Muslim despot and
the Sepulchre of the Christian or Muslim Saint or a Hindu monument or temple.
Whatever is beautiful, whatever is historic and whatever that tears the mask
off the face of the past and helps mankind to read its riddles and not the
dogmas of a primitively combative theology these are the criteria by which
a responsible Government in India must be guided in its approach to preservation
of monuments.
I cannot conceive of any obligation more strictly
appertaining to a supreme government than the conservation of the most beautiful
and perfect collection of monument in the world, or one more likely to be
scamped and ignored by a delegation of authority to provincial administrations.
The conservation work done by the dedicated
Officers and men of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1862 to 1947 was
indeed remarkable and glorious. It could well be described as the golden age
of Archaeology in India. The British Officers and men of the ASI conducted
their work with complete objectivity. Regardless of whether it was a Hindu
or a Muslim or a Christian monument, their efforts to preserve were the same
and their description was always impartial. All these great traditions in
the field of preservation and conservation were destroyed by pseudo-secular
men like Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao with consummate
skill and organized pseudo-secular unscrupulousness.
To conclude in the beautiful words of Gargi:
A visit to Vidisha would enable any enlightened visitor to emotionally understand
and appreciate that there is a lingering below the surface resentment against
the Government treatment of what they believe to be their dearest treasure,
architectural as well as sentimental. The moral of a pilgrimage to Vidisha
is that no purpose would be served by hushing up what is a naked history.
(The writer is a retired IAS officer)
e-mail the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com
