A petition has been filed before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court seeking a direction to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to open more than 20 rooms inside the Taj Mahal premises to find any truth to the claim of Hindu idols inside and the "history of Taj Mahal."
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) media in charge of Ayodhya district, Dr Rajneesh Singh has filed the petition which is yet to come up for hearing. Advocate Rudra Vikram Singh is representing the petitioner in court.
¡°There is an old controversy related to the Taj Mahal. Around 20 rooms in the Taj Mahal are locked and no one is allowed to enter. It is believed that in these rooms there are idols of Hindu gods and scriptures,¡± said Dr Rajneesh Singh.
¡°I have filed a petition in the high court seeking directives to ASI to open these rooms to ascertain facts. There is no harm in opening these rooms and setting to rest all controversies,¡± said Singh.
The plea sought a direction from the government to constitute a fact-finding committee and to ¡°look for important historical evidence¡± like idols and inscriptions that are believed to be hidden inside the Taj Mahal on the orders of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, according to Bar & Bench.
The plea, filed through advocate Rudra Vikram Singh, argued that many Hindu Groups have been claiming that the Taj Mahal is an old Shiva Temple which was known as Tejo Mahalaya and this is supported by many historians as well.
¡°It is said that Taj Mahal was named after the name of Shah Jahan¡¯s wife Mumtaz Mahal however in many books the name of the wife of Shahjahan was described as Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, not Mumtaj Mahal, also the fact that the construction of a mausoleum takes 22 years for completion is beyond the reality and totally an absurdity,¡± the plea stated.
¡°It is there in many History books that in 1212 AD, Raja Paramardi Dev had built Tejo Mahalaya temple palace (presently Taj Mahal). The temple was later inherited by Raja Maan Singh, the then Maharaja of Jaipur. After him, the property was held and managed by Raja Jai Singh but was annexed by Shah Jahan (in 1632) and later it was converted into a memorial for the wife of Shah Jahan.¡±
The plea stated that in the 22 permanently locked rooms in the upper and lower portion of the four-storied building of Taj Mahal lies a temple of Shiva.
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