A total of 55 stone sculptures were found in the Gyanvapi mosque complex during the survey conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India, including 15 “Shiva linga”, three sculptures of “Vishnu”, three of “Ganesha”, two of “Nandi”, two of “Krishna”, and and five of “Hanuman”, the ASI report states.
The ASI, tasked by the Varanasi district court to ascertain whether the mosque was “constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”, has concluded that a temple “appears to have been destroyed in the 17th century, during the reign of Aurangzeb and part of it… modified and reused in the existing structure”. The ASI report — it’s in four volumes — was made public Thursday after copies of it were handed over to Hindu and Muslim litigants by the court.
As per Volume 3, one “Makara” stone sculpture, one “Dwarpala”, one “Apasmara Purusha”, one “Votive shrine”, 14 “fragments”, and seven “miscellaneous” stone sculptures were also found during the ASI survey.
(This story has not been edited by News Mania staff and is published from a Media Release)
