Aurangzeb's forman to provinces to
destroy all Hindu temples and schools. As many as 5,000 temples were
destroyed under him—a minimum of 200 in 1679 alone. On the anniversary of the
Babri Masjid demolition (December 6, 1992), it is important for Hindus (and
Muslims) to understand the importance of the event in the context of
Hindustan's history, past and recent, present and the future. Savages at a very
low level of civilisation and no culture worth the name, from Arabia and west
Asia, began entering India from the early century onwards. Islamic invaders
demolished countless Hindu temples, shattered uncountable sculpture and idols,
plundered innumerable palaces and forts of Hindu kings, killed vast numbers of
Hindu men and carried off Hindu women. This story, the educated-and a lot of
even the illiterate Indians-know very well. History books tell it in remarkable
detail. But many Indians do not seem to recognise that the alien Muslim
marauders destroyed the historical evolution of the earth's most mentally
advanced civilisation, the most richly imaginative culture, and the most
vigorously creative society.
It is clear that India at the time when Muslim invaders turned towards it (8 to
11th century) was the earth's richest region for its wealth in precious and
semi-precious stones, gold and silver, religion and culture, and its fine arts
and letters. Tenth century Hindustan was also too far advanced than its
contemporaries in the East and the West for its achievements in the realms of
speculative philosophy and scientific the rising, mathematics and knowledge of
nature's workings. Hindus of the early medieval period were unquestionably
superior in more things than the Chinese, the Persians (including the
Sassanians), the Romans and the Byzantines of the immediate proceeding
centuries. The followers of Siva and Vishnu on this subcontinent had created
for themselves a society more mentally evolved-joyous and prosperous too-than
had been realised by the Jews, Christians, and Muslim monotheists of the time.
Medieval India, until the Islamic invaders destroyed it, was history's
most richly imaginative culture and one of the five most advanced civilisations
of all times.
Look at the Hindu art that Muslim iconoclasts severely damaged or destroyed.
Ancient Hindu sculpture is vigorous and sensual in the highest degree-more
fascinating than human figural art created anywhere else on earth. (Only
statues created by classical Greek artists are in the same class as Hindu
temple sculpture). Ancient Hindu temple architecture is the most awe-inspiring,
ornate and spell-binding architectural style found anywhere in the world. (The
Gothic art of cathedrals in France is the only other religious architecture
that is comparable with the intricate architecture of Hindu temples). No artist
of any historical civilisation have ever revealed the same genius as ancient
Hindustan's artists and artisans.
Their minds filled with venom against the idol-worshippers of Hindustan, the Muslims
destroyed a large number of ancient Hindu temples. This is a historical fact,
mentioned by Muslim chroniclers and others of the time. A number of temples
were merely damaged and remained standing. But a large number-not hundreds but
many thousands-of the ancient temples were broken into shreds of cracked stone.
In the ancient cities of Varanasi and Mathura, Ujjain and Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi
and Dwarka, not one temple survives whole and intact from the ancient times.
The wrecking of Hindu temples went on from the early years of the 8th century
to well past 1700 AD a period of almost 1000 years. Every Muslim ruler in Delhi
(or Governor of Provinces) spent most of his time warring against Hindu kings
in the north and the south, the east and the west, and almost every Muslim
Sultan and his army commanders indulged in largescale destructions of Hindu
temples and idols. They also slaughtered a lot of Hindus. It is easy to
conclude that virtually every Hindu temple built in the ancient times is a
perfect work of art. The evidence of the ferocity with which the Muslim
invaders must have struck at the sculptures of gods and goddesses, demons and
apsaras, kings and queens, dancers and musicians is frightful. At so many
ancient temples of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, for example, shattered
portions of stone images still lie scattered in the temple courtyards.
Considering the fury used on the idols and sculptures, the
stone-breaking axe must have been applied to thousands upon thousands of
images of hypnotic beauty.
Giving proof of the resentment that men belonging to an inferior civilisation
feel upon encountering a superior civilisation of individuals with a more
refined culture, Islamic invaders from Arabia and western Asia broke and burned
everything beautiful they came across in Hindustan. So morally degenerate were
the Muslim Sultans that, rather than attract Hindu "infidels" to
Islam through force of personal example and exhortation, they just built a
number of mosques at the sites of torn down temples-and foolishly pretended
they had triumphed over the minds and culture of the Hindus. I have seen stones
and columns of Hindu temples incorportated into the architecture of several
mosques, including the Jama Masjid and Ahmed Shah Masjid in Ahmedabad; the mosque
in the Uparkot fort of Junagadh (Gujarat) and in Vidisha (near Bhopal); the
Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra right next to the famous dargah in Ajmer-and the currently
controversial Bhojshala "mosque" in Dhar (near
Indore). Hindu culture was at its imaginative best and vigorously
creative when the severely-allergic-to-images Muslims entered Hindustan.
Islamic invaders did not just destroy countless temples and constructions but
also suppressed cultural and religious practices; damaged the pristine vigour
of Hindu religion, prevented the intensification of Hindu culture, debilitating
it permanently, stopped the development of Hindu arts ended the creative
impulse in all realms of thought and action, damaged the people's cultural
pride, disrupted the transmission of values and wisdom, cultural practices and
tradition from one generation to the next; destroyed the proper historical
evolution of Hindu kingdoms and society, affected severely the acquisition of
knowledge, research and reflection and violated the moral basis of Hindu
society. The Hindus suffered immense psychic damage. The Muslims also plundered
the wealth of the Hindu kingdoms, impoverished the Hindu populace, and
destroyed the prosperity of Hindustan.
Gaze in wonder at the Kailas Mandir in the Ellora caves and remember that it is
carved out of a solid stone hill, an effort that (inscriptions say) took nearly
200 years. This is art as devotion. The temple built by the Rashtrakuta kings
(who also built the colossal sculpture in the Elenhanta caves off Mumbai
harbour) gives proof of the ancient Hindus' religious fervor.
But the Kailas temple also indicated a will power, a creative imagination, and
an intellect eager to take on the greatest of artistic challenges.
The descendants of those who built the magnificent temples of Bhojpur and
Thanjavur, Konark and Kailas, invented mathematics and brain surgery, created
mindbody disciplines (yoga) of astonishing power, and built mighty empires
would almost certainly have attained technological superiority over Europe.
It is not just for "political reasons" that Hindus want to build
grand temples at the sites of the (wrecked) Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the
Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, and the Mathura idgah. The efforts of
religion-intoxicated and politically active Hindus to rebuild the Ram Mandir,
the Kashi Vishwanath Mandir, and the Krishna Mandir are just three episodes m a
one-thousand year long Hindu struggle to reclaim their culture and religion
from alien invaders.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on 6 December 1992 was just one
episode in the millennial struggle of the Hindus to repossess their
religion-centered culture and nation. Meanwhile, hundreds of ancient Hindu
temples forsaken all over Hindustan await the reawakening of Hindu cultural
pride to be repaired or rebuilt and restored to their original, ancient glory. Hindustan Times on December 28, 1997
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