Aarti held in the Gyanvapi Mosque basement, devotee claims to have “seen Nandi”

Thursday morning, the Varanasi administration carried out the district court’s orders and permitted pooja at ‘Vyas Ji ka Tehkhana,’ located in the southern section of the Gyanvapi complex. The freedom to perform religious rites on the historical place was recently upheld by a court order, which prompted this action.

Aarti was performed at three in the morning by a priest after the pooja. A conference was called at midnight by Ashok Mutha Jain, the Commissioner of Police, and S Rajalingam, the District Magistrate of Varanasi, before the pooja began. Held in a hall on the grounds of Kashi Vishwanath Dham, the meeting lasted for around two hours.

Following debates, the district administration made efforts to make the court’s ruling easier to carry out.

To enable easy access to the southern cellar and to guarantee an uninterrupted execution of the pooja ceremonies there, a passageway was cleared  within the barricades.

According to Rajalingam, the barricade has been taken down, and the court order has been complied with.

“We saw the Nandi”

Images from the Gyanvapi mosque complex showed happy worshippers expressing their excitement. One of the devotees who emerged from the facility after praying told ANI, “We saw the Nandi bull. We have been waiting since yesterday to offer prayers. The temple should be built. We are very happy after offering prayers.”

Meanwhile, security measures have been strengthened around the Gyanvapi compound.

On Wednesday, the district court of Varanasi permitted Hindu devotees to do prayers in one of the cellars located in the Gyanvapi complex’s basement.

Hindu activists have been working for decades to recapture various Islamic places of worship, including the Gyanvapi mosque, which was constructed by the Mughal Empire in the 17th century.

It was constructed by the Mughal Empire in the seventeenth century in a city where Hindu devotees from all over the nation cremate their departed loved ones along the Ganges River.

One of the four “tehkhanas” in the mosque complex’s basement is allegedly owned by the Vyas family. Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas had requested permission to enter the tehkhana and continue performing pooja in his capacity as an inherited pujari.

The Court’s ruling

On Wednesday, January 31, the Varanasi District Court permitted Hindu devotees to pray within the enclosed ‘Vyas ji Ka Tehkhana’ section located in the basement of the controversial Gyanvapi mosque.

The attorney for the Anjuman Itezamia Masajid Committee, Akhlaque Ahmad, disputed the allegations, stating that “The Vyas family never performed puja in the basement. No Idol was there in the cellar. It is wrong to say that the people of Vyas family were in possession of the cellar. The basement is in the possession of the Anjuman Itezamia Masjid Committee.”

The Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, was formerly the site of a huge Hindu temple, according to a definitive report previously released by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

After that, four Hindu ladies went to the Supreme Court and asked to have a sealed section of the mosque surveyed scientifically.

Mumtaz Ahmed, the Muslim side’s representative, stated: “The district judge today gave its final verdict by giving the right of worship to Hindus. We will now go to the High Court against this decision.”

Kashi Vishwanath Trust chairman Nagendra Pandey stated “Today’s decision raises hopes that the entire complex will be ours one day. After today’s court order, we will talk to the district administration tomorrow,” following the court’s decision.

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