The Allahabad high court has allowed a scientific study to determine the antiquity of the purported shivling found in the ablution pond of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi during a court-mandated survey on May 16 last year. Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra’s order came on a revision petition by four Hindu plaintiffs, challenging the Varanasi district court’s October 14 ruling against their plea for carbon dating and scientific determination of the structure by ASI.
The Hindu side believes the structure retrieved from inside the ablution pond of the Gyanvapi mosque is a shivling. The Anjuman Islamia Masajid, which manages the mosque, claims it is a fountain. The antecedents of the case, which has spawned multiple litigations, lie in five Hindu women filing a suit in a local court for unhindered daily access to the Gyanvapi complex to worship Shringar Gauri and other deities along its periphery.
The high court’s order to carry out a scientific study was based on the ASI’s response to its November 4, 2022 directive for expert opinion on whether any exercise involving carbon-dating, ground penetrating radar (GPR), excavation and other methods to determine the structure’s age was feasible. The bench specifically wanted to know if any or a combination of these methods was likely to cause any damage to the structure.
After several reminders, the ASI submitted a 52-page report on April 17 this year, specifying that the antiquity of the structure could be scientifically determined without any damage. The report cited studies by IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, Lucknow’s Birbal Sahni Institute and another institutes.