The destruction of Hindu temples by aggressive Islamists has long been an unfortunate part of South Asian History. It has made the history of India to deliberately look like that of embracing Islamic culture than gracing the rich Hindu heritage. And, it is those who call themselves ‘secular’ or ‘liberal’, responsible for demeaning the Hindu culture and celebrating the Islamic way of life.
The Muslim rulers forcefully entered India in the past centuries and allegedly began the process of ‘Islamisation’ of the country. The easiest way for them to achieve the set goal was by destroying the Hindu structures and prominent Hindu places of worship in India. As a result, the Babri Masjid was built in 1527 on the birthplace of Lord Ram under the rule of Mughal emperor Babur, Hanuman temple in Srirangapatna, Karnataka was converted into Jamia Masjid in the year 1780, and Kamal Maula Mosque was built on Bhojshala, the ancient temple of Lord Saraswati in Madhya Pradesh, Adina Mosque was built on Adinath Temple in West Bengal, etc.
Recently, a court-monitored survey of the disputed Gyanvapi structure found a Shivling inside the Wuzukhana of the mosque. The Wuzukhana is a place inside a mosque where Muslims wash their hands and feet before offering namaz. Many more Hindu structures and temples were demolished and converted into Islamic places of worship in India. One such mosque is the Deval Masjid which is located in the Bodhan area of Telangana’s Nizamabad district.
According to the reports, the structure of Deval Masjid was originally a Hindu-Jain temple that was built around the 10th century CE by the Rashtrakuta King Indravallabha (Indra III). The temple was renovated during the period of Kalyani Chalukya ruler Someswara who had then named it ‘Indranarayan Swamy Temple’. The conversion of the Indranarayan Swamy temple into a Mosque dates back to the year 1323 when Muhammad Bin Tughlaq encroached the Bodhan fort which was under the protection of warrior Kakatiya commander Sitaramachandra Sastri.
The structure called Deval Masjid in Bodhan, Telangana was originally the Indranarayana Swamy temple.
— Vertigo_Warrior (@VertigoWarrior) October 12, 2020
The temple was built was built around 10th century C.E by the Rashtrakuta King Indravallabha (Indra III)
The tempe was r@zed by Muhammad Bin Tughlaq & converted to a Masjid pic.twitter.com/gfwgLsILAM
Shastri protected the 100 pillared structure for many years but was forced to surrender by the army of Tughlaq. Shastri was forcefully converted to Islam, was made to accept the suzerainty of Tughlaq, and was named newly Alam Khan. But he reconverted to Hinduism as soon as the Tughlaq’s army left. The next time Tughlaq’s army invaded Bodhan, they took no prisoners, instead of surrounded the Podana (Bodhan) fort and destroyed it. They beheaded the Kakatiya commander Sitaramachandra Shastri and converted the Indranarayan Swamy temple to Deval Masjid.
The Indian Archeologists published their research on the Indranarayan Swamy Temple in the year 1961-62 to reveal that the murti of Lord Indranarayan (Lord Vishnu) was replaced with Mihrab, the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The Islamists also destroyed the temple ‘shikhara’ and replaced it with stucco domes.
The original plan of the temple was star-shaped and was not changed by Tughlaq’s army except for the removal of the star chamber and the setting up of a pulpit. The said structure is still graced with 100 stone pillars today evident of the existence of the Hindu-Jain temple in the past. The sad part is however that the official website of the Telangana Government considers it as Deval Masjid and not the Indranarayan Swamy Temple. While describing the tourist’s leaflet to the historical location, the department of Heritage Telangana says that the Deval Mosque was originally ‘believed’ to be a Hindu temple and consists of Rashtrakuta and Persian inscriptions of Mohd Bin Tuglaq.
Interestingly, a video report published by ‘Exploring the world states that the idol of the Indranarayan Swamy temple is preserved in the meditation hall of ‘Shri Keshava Seva Samithi’, Kandakurti village which is 25 km away from Bodhan in the Rangel Mandal of Nizamabad District. While there are no traces of who shifted the idol from the Indranarayan Swamy temple, when, and where, the report says that the residents of the Kandakurti village found the idol in the haystack and erected it in ‘Shri Keshava Seva Samithi’.
The village is of major religious importance as it houses the ‘Triveni Sangam’ of Manjira river which flows from Karnataka, the Haridra river which flows from Telangana and the Godavari river which flows from the state of Maharashtra. Many vedic families resided in the village due to the religious importance attacked to the location.
Later due to the rising influence of the Islamists and their way of life, many families shifted from the Kandakurti village to Nagpur which was under the rule of Bhosle’s then in Maharashtra. Among the families who migrated were the ancestors (great grandfather) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. Today the idol of Lord Indranarayan Swamy (the Keshava murti) is positioned in the Shri Keshava Seva Samithi along with the idol of Bharat Mata and the idol of Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.
The rise of Islam in the subcontinent via trade in Kerala, during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, spread gradually until the late 17th century to make Islamist dynasties politically dominant throughout the subcontinent until the rise of the Marathas.
The attitudes of Muslim rulers toward the native Hindus back then ranged from the forceful conversion of temples to the forceful conversion of people believing in Gods. Many temples in the past were deliberately destroyed to make an impact on Hindus. Many of the historic temples of major Hindu holy sites at Ayodhya, Kannauj, Mathura, Multan, Vrindavan, Varanasi, Thanesar, and Prayagraj no longer exist.
By the time the British expanded their control over India, around a quarter to a fifth of the subcontinent’s population had become Muslim. One does not have to be religious or a history buff to realise the utter humiliating state of affairs towards Hinduism.
Even today, the so-called Deval Masjid is known to locals as Vanda Stambhala Gudi, which means a temple of one hundred pillars. Also, mutilated images of Lord Vishnu’s Dashavataras can be found all over the walls of the Deval Masjid, underscoring its Hindu connections.
