hindu temple essay

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Hinduism and hindu art.

Krishna Killing the Horse Demon Keshi

Standing Four-Armed Vishnu

Linga with Face of Shiva (Ekamukhalinga)

Standing Parvati

Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja)

Standing Ganesha

Standing Female Deity, probably Durga

Ardhanarishvara (Composite of Shiva and Parvati)

Vaikuntha Vishnu

Krishna on Garuda

Durga as Slayer of the Buffalo Demon Mahishasura

Seated Ganesha

Kneeling Female Figure

Hanuman Conversing

The Goddess Durga Slaying the Demon Buffalo Mahisha

Loving Couple (Mithuna)

Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Shaiva Saint

Vidya Dehejia Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

February 2007

According to the Hindu view, there are four goals of life on earth, and each human being should aspire to all four. Everyone should aim for dharma , or righteous living; artha , or wealth acquired through the pursuit of a profession; kama , or human and sexual love; and, finally, moksha , or spiritual salvation.

This holistic view is reflected as well as in the artistic production of India. Although a Hindu temple is dedicated to the glory of a deity and is aimed at helping the devotee toward moksha , its walls might justifiably contain sculptures that reflect the other three goals of life. It is in such a context that we may best understand the many sensuous and apparently secular themes that decorate the walls of Indian temples.

Hinduism is a religion that had no single founder, no single spokesman, no single prophet. Its origins are mixed and complex. One strand can be traced back to the sacred Sanskrit literature of the Aryans, the Vedas, which consist of hymns in praise of deities who were often personifications of the natural elements. Another strand drew on the beliefs prevalent among groups of indigenous peoples, especially the faith in the power of the mother goddess and in the efficacy of fertility symbols. Hinduism, in the form comparable to its present-day expression, emerged at about the start of the Christian era, with an emphasis on the supremacy of the god Vishnu, the god Shiva, and the goddess Shakti (literally, “Power”).

The pluralism evident in Hinduism, as well as its acceptance of the existence of several deities, is often puzzling to non-Hindus. Hindus suggest that one may view the Infinite as a diamond of innumerable facets. One or another facet—be it Rama, Krishna, or Ganesha—may beckon an individual believer with irresistible magnetism. By acknowledging the power of an individual facet and worshipping it, the believer does not thereby deny the existence of many aspects of the Infinite and of varied paths toward the ultimate goal.

Deities are frequently portrayed with multiple arms, especially when they are engaged in combative acts of cosmic consequence that involve destroying powerful forces of evil. The multiplicity of arms emphasizes the immense power of the deity and his or her ability to perform several feats at the same time. The Indian artist found this a simple and an effective means of expressing the omnipresence and omnipotence of a deity. Demons are frequently portrayed with multiple heads to indicate their superhuman power. The occasional depiction of a deity with more than one head is generally motivated by the desire to portray varying aspects of the character of that deity. Thus, when the god Shiva is portrayed with a triple head, the central face indicates his essential character and the flanking faces depict his fierce and blissful aspects.

The Hindu Temple Architecture and sculpture are inextricably linked in India . Thus, if one speaks of Indian architecture without taking note of the lavish sculptured decoration with which monuments are covered, a partial and distorted picture is presented. In the Hindu temple , large niches in the three exterior walls of the sanctum house sculpted images that portray various aspects of the deity enshrined within. The sanctum image expresses the essence of the deity. For instance, the niches of a temple dedicated to a Vishnu may portray his incarnations; those of a temple to Shiva , his various combative feats; and those of a temple to the Great Goddess, her battles with various demons. Regional variations exist, too; in the eastern state of Odisha, for example, the niches of a temple to Shiva customarily contain images of his family—his consort, Parvati, and their sons, Ganesha, the god of overcoming obstacles, and warlike Skanda.

The exterior of the halls and porch are also covered with figural sculpture. A series of niches highlight events from the mythology of the enshrined deity, and frequently a place is set aside for a variety of other gods. In addition, temple walls feature repeated banks of scroll-like foliage, images of women, and loving couples known as mithunas . Signifying growth, abundance, and prosperity, they were considered auspicious motifs.

Dehejia, Vidya. “Hinduism and Hindu Art.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hind/hd_hind.htm (February 2007)

Further Reading

Dehejia, Vidya. Indian Art . London: Phaidon, 1997.

Eck, Diana L. Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India. 2d ed . Chamberburg, Pa.: Anima Books, 1985.

Michell, George. The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms. Reprint . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Mitter, Partha. Indian Art . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Additional Essays by Vidya Dehejia

• Dehejia, Vidya. “ Buddhism and Buddhist Art .” (February 2007)
• Dehejia, Vidya. “ Recognizing the Gods .” (February 2007)
• Dehejia, Vidya. “ South Asian Art and Culture .” (February 2007)

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Essay on Ayodhya Ram Mandir in English: Samples in 100-250 Words for School Students

• Updated on  
• Jan 24, 2024

Essay on Ayodhya Ram Mandir in English : The day of Lord Rama’s idol consecration ceremony at Ayodhya Ram Mandir was one of the most significant days in Indian history. On 22nd January 2024, the ‘Pran Prathistha’ ceremony at Ayodhya Ram Mandir took place. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and other VVIPs of the country were present at the ceremony.

As a way to improve communication skills, students are encouraged to write essays and paragraphs about a variety of national and international topics. A lot of students are given assignments to describe in their own words the amazing beauty of the magnificent Ram Mandir, since this day has been carved with golden words in Indian history, giving it particular significance. Check out this essay on Ayodhya Ram Mandir in English, which schoolchildren can use as an example to explain the chronology, history, and glory of the spectacular Temple. 

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Ayodhya Ram Mandir in English in 100-150 Words
• 2 Essay on Ayodhya Ram Mandir in English in 200-250 Words
• 3 5 Interesting Facts About Ayodhya Ram Mandir
• 4 Timeline of Major Events 

Explore 200+ Essay Topics for School Students in English

Essay on Ayodhya Ram Mandir in English in 100-150 Words

The majestic temple known as the Ayodhya Ram Mandir is situated in the holy city of Ayodhya. This city is situated on the bank of the Saryu River and is located in the northern region of India. Built at the birthplace of Hinduism’s foremost deity, Rama, it is called Ram Janmbhoomi . There have been long-standing disagreements and debates around the Ayodhya Ram Mandir, that involve both political and religious dimensions. Recently inaugurated, the Ayodhya Ram Mandir is thought to be the precise location of Lord Rama’s birth. It has been said that his ancestors made a temple there to honour his life and birth. In the medieval period, Mughal Emperor Babur destroyed the Ram Temple and built the Babri Masjid, to promote Islam in India. The climax of this incident took place in 1992, when a group of Hindu devotees demolished the Babri Masjid, claiming it to be the birthplace of Lord Ram. After 32 years, the Ram Temple inauguration took place under the authority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Learn the Basics: How to Write an Essay in English: Format, Samples, and Tips

Essay on Ayodhya Ram Mandir in English in 200-250 Words

The sacred city of Ayodhya is home to the magnificent temple known as the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. Situated in the northern part of India, the city is on the banks of the Saryu River. Constructed at the birthplace of the most revered deity in Hinduism, Rama, it is known as Ram Janmbhoomi. 

It is thought that Rama was born precisely at the location where Ram Mandir was constructed by his ancestors to honour his life and birth. However, around the sixteenth century, the Mughal ruler Babur demolished the temple and built the Babri Masjid, a mosque. Later, in 1992, a group of Hindu militants destroyed the mosque, setting off violent riots and other religious unrest throughout the nation. For years, there has been debate and litigation around the ownership and status of the property. 

Ayodhya Ram Mandir’s history is complicated, connected with arguments and obstacles. The completion of Ram Mandir represents the end of a long-running dispute. The Ram Mandir’s artistically carved sandstone, which includes domes, pillars, and engravings whispering tales of Rama’s journey, is a reflection of traditional Hindu architecture. The temple is more than merely a monument; it represents tenacity, optimism, and a path toward peace. Because of this, the Ayodhya Ram Mandir is far more than an ordinary building; it’s an important representation of spiritual principles, cultural history, and firm faith.

Also Read: Essay on Rajendra Prasad in 100, 200 and 500 Words

5 Interesting Facts About Ayodhya Ram Mandir

• With more than fifteen generations of temple architecture experience, the Sompura family created the design for the Ayodhya Ram Mandir.
• The Ram Mandir is constructed entirely of stones, copper, white cement, and wood. Neither iron nor steel is used in its construction.
• The Ram Mandir, which occupies 70 acres, 70% of which is green space, is the largest temple in India.
• A 2000-foot-deep time capsule at the temple holds information on the origins of Lord Rama and the history of Ayodhya.
• The temple features a constellation-based garden with 27 different plant species, each of which represents one of the 27 nakshatras (star constellations).

Also Read: Essay on Pongal in 100 to 400 Words in English

Timeline of Major Events 

Ans: The temple is being constructed on a controversial area of land in the city of Ayodhya, which is regarded by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Ram. 

Ans: The Mughal emperor Babur’s commander Mir Baqi built the Babri Masjid in 1528, which marked the start of the Ram Temple movement. Decades of disagreements and hostilities between the two populations were caused by the notion that the mosque was constructed on the site and the ruins of a Hindu temple.

Ans: It is situated in the location of Ram Janmabhoomi, the birthplace of Hinduism’s foremost deity, Rama. Built in the sixteenth century CE, the mosque was built on the site of the remnants of a Hindu temple leading to decades of disputes and hostility between the Hindu-Muslim populations.

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Essay on Temple

India is a land of ancient temples, sacred places and shrines. Temples are a symbol of peace and belief for Hindus. The temple’s main deity is the sculpture of a God or Goddess. Indian temples are known for their intricate sculptures, carvings and ancient paintings. These temples are open to the public and visitors who come to worship and make offerings. BYJU’S essay on temple helps children learn about the holy Indian temples.

From Kanyakumari to Kashmir, we find temples in any corner of the country. Each temple has a history, and the walls have a story of brave warriors or kings to tell the world. The entrance, or dhwaja sthambha, is a gateway that marks the way to the sanctum sanctorum. People visit temples for different reasons, such as pursuing peace, organising family functions, seeking blessings, serving people, etc. Now, let us read about famous Indian temples that are globally recognised by referring to an essay on temple in English.

Table of Contents

Famous indian temples, virupaksha temple, brihadeshwara temple, golden temple, akshardham temple.

Puri Jagannath Temple

History of Indian Temples

Indian temples are one of the most beautiful creations of humankind. Here are a few famous temples in India.

Virupaksha temple is located in Hampi, Karnataka. The temple was constructed by one of the chieftains, Lakkana Dandesha, who worked in the reign of the ruler Deva Raya II of the Vijayanagara Empire. Hampi is one of the world heritage sites designated by UNESCO. Lord Shiva is the main deity who is worshipped in sanctum sanctorum. This temple is the primary centre of yatra at Hampi.

Brihadeshwara temple, also known as Rajarajeswaram, is located in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. This temple was constructed by Rajaraja I, a Chola emperor. Brihadeshwara temple is an example of Tamil architecture. Rajarajeswaram is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Like the Virupaksha temple, this temple is also a UNESCO world heritage site.

Golden temple is one of the most prominent shrines in the country, located in Amritsar, Punjab. Golden temple is also known as Sri Harmandir Sahib. Lakhs of Sikhs visit this temple every year. While visiting this temple, people must cover their heads for the lord.

Akshardham temple is one of the most visited temples across the country. Akshardham temple is situated in the national capital of India, Delhi, and the temple is famous for its architectural marvel. Moreover, this is one of India’s most beautiful shrines built in recent times.

To conclude, temples are of great importance to the Indians and the country’s culture. People visit temples to seek blessings from God or find peace from all the chaos around. In addition, Indian temples are excellent constructions, and each one of them is an architectural masterpiece. In this short essay on temple, we have explained the prominent Indian temples for children. For more essays, stories and poems , visit BYJU’S website.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the oldest temple in india.

The oldest temple in India is the Mundeshwari temple, located in Kaimur District, Bihar.

Which state is famous for temples in India?

Tamil Nadu is famous for its temples in India.

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The Hindu Temple: A Place of Worship, Learning, and Community

Temples in Hinduism hold immense importance as they serve as a central hub for multiple dimensions of everyday life within the Hindu community. These include religious, cultural, educational, and social aspects. Hindus view their lives as a progression towards ultimate enlightenment and consider temples to be sacred spaces where they can seek connection with the divine and acquire divine wisdom. The pursuit of enlightenment and liberation is reflected in every aspect of the temple, from its design principles and construction to its architectural forms, decorations, and rituals.

The temple dissolves the boundaries between man and the divine through its design. The principal shrine must have its entrance to the east, facing the rising sun. The architecture reflects the importance of movement towards the sanctuary along the east-west axis and through consecrated spaces. Each temple has its own unique themes, as not every temple is the same. Hindus worship over altars in both their homes and at temples. Daily prayers are performed at family altars, while temples are visited for important matters or significant events and occasions.

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Hindu temples are constructed as places of devotion, resembling man-made mountains, with the purpose of housing the idol of a specific deity. According to the Upanishads, these temples represent the eternal Lord residing within the ever-changing world. Unlike traditional places for sermons, temples primarily serve as a setting for worshippers to engage in personal reverence towards deities and foster social connections with fellow devotees. In ancient times, temple access was exclusively granted to kings, Brahmin priests, and esteemed nobles.

Even in modern times, individuals who are not Hindus are generally prohibited from entering Hindu temples. These temples typically comprise of two main parts: a mandapa, which serves as a prayer hall, and a garbhargriha or central shrine located within a sanctuary or inner sanctum. Within the sanctuary, an icon representing the specific Hindu deity to whom the temple is dedicated is placed and only priests are allowed access to this area. Surrounding the sanctuary and prayer hall is a covered space where worshipers can walk in a clockwise direction. The focal point of the temple is the elevated platform underneath the central tower, where the inner sanctum is situated.

The sanctuary, which symbolizes a womb, is the most sacred part of the temple and can hold either a statue or image of the god, or a linga representing Shiva to channel divine energy. In addition to this, there are shrines for other gods in a specific order for worshipers to follow. Furthermore, there are smaller secondary shrines surrounding the main temple dedicated to other gods or avatars who are consorts of the primary deity.

In Rochester, NY, I discovered a Hindu temple that stands out among the many temples in the world. Unlike others, this temple has a distinctive design with only one section containing an altar, shrines, and statues of different deities, priests, and incarnations. Nevertheless, its most remarkable aspect is the incorporation of symbols like Jesus on the cross, verses from the Quran, and a suspended Star of David statue on the wall. These additions serve to highlight equality among religions by emphasizing that no religion is superior to another.

Upon entering the prayer area, numerous statues, an altar, and pictures of individuals cover the walls. It is essential to recognize that the main altar is designed in the form of a reclining female figure. The head portrays a face, the left ear resembles an elephant, and the right ear represents a dripping water. Additionally, the altar contains a bust of the female it portrays. The reason behind this depiction is attributed to the beliefs of the temple’s creator. He maintained that children gather more willingly when summoned by their mother rather than their father.

Additionally, the hips and shoulders are added to the female body by other statue areas to emphasize the significance of God. Each individual statue represents a significant deity who was once a human being. It is important to note that every deity worshipped by Hindus used to be a person, but became a God due to their extraordinary abilities. Finally, it is crucial to acknowledge that the images of people on the walls depict influential Brahmins who impacted the temple’s leader.

This temple distinguishes itself by its unique approach to each shrine. There are two main reasons why this temple is criticized. Firstly, the temple’s leader welcomes non-Hindus into the premises, as he believes it is crucial for individuals to understand and become familiar with Hinduism. He acknowledges that every religion has distinct features and people should not disregard other beliefs around them. By promoting interactions between non-Hindus and Hindus, this temple allows for an observation of both the differences and similarities between these religions.

The temple faces extensive condemnation due to its treatment of women, which is the main cause for its unfavorable reputation. Women are frequently barred from engaging in the temple’s services on grounds like menstruation, pregnancy, or simply their gender. This exclusion perpetuates a notion that half of the Hindu community remains uninformed about their own faith. The temple’s founder acknowledged the significance of women in society and consequently designated them as leaders of the rituals.

Constantly faced with disapproval, he strives to educate others about his religion and advocate for women’s rights. Despite its similarities to other temples, the Rochester, NY temple is met with disdain due to its distinctiveness. Its founder envisioned a sanctuary for prayer and spiritual connection. In addition to preserving its Hindu identity, he endeavors to educate people about his faith to combat ignorance surrounding Hinduism.

During the rituals, an offer is made to each deity as part of their practice. Upon arrival, the group of HWS students had no knowledge of the significance of the fruit. However, after visiting the temple, they now understand the purpose behind the offering and its importance. Unfortunately, the Hindu religion often goes unnoticed and unappreciated. The man’s objective is to promote awareness and understanding of the religion, revealing its true essence. The temple serves as a space for individuals to learn, pray, and interact in a positive environment while also gaining insight into their own selves.

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Essay: Ayodhya and the end of the Hindu imagination

The most magical thing about the ramayana is that it has the capacity to enter our personal lives, dreams and nightmares. but will that continue to be possible now that a single official version has been enshrined.

When a state stamps its ownership on a much-loved story, its ordinary citizens have no choice but to let go of their own versions. In effect, they have to give up their own peculiar, personalised love for the tale, its range of characters, the various scenes and episodes. By loving the story, once upon a time, they could write parts of it themselves, create echoes of it for their daily lives, loves and prayers. All of that is now lost. There remains only one story to follow, only one hero to admire, designated virtues to worship.

I lost my Ramayana on January 22, when the Indian state took it away from me.

The most magical thing about stories is that they are private, that they have a shape-shifting capacity of entering our personal lives, dreams and nightmares. When the democratically elected leader of a country consecrates a particular version of a story in a designated temple that leads to a flurry of holidays nationwide, when national media live streams the consecration to every corner of the nation, when dignitaries from the walks of life that really matter in India – film and cricket and politics – gather to watch the consecration, can you still go on loving the story and its characters in your own private and idiosyncratic way?

When Ram Rajya is the utopia around us, is it possible anymore to mourn the loss of Sita to her Earth Mother? Is it possible anymore to love and admire Indrajit, aka Meghnad, Ravana’s spirited younger brother, invincible behind the clouds? Once upon a time, a great Bengali poet had written an epic poem in the manner of Milton where Lakshman killed the cloud-warrior with the latter in the middle of his puja, in a rare moment of vulnerability. Lakshman’s breach of military ethics had the same mystery and complexity as Krishna’s instruction to Arjun to kill the great Kaurava generals, in ways unacceptable to military ethics. But Michael Madhusudhan Dutt, the poet of Meghnad Badh Kavya , was, like his idol John Milton, “of the devil’s party without knowing it”, as the poet William Blake had said of the great English poet of Paradise Lost . For Milton, Satan was the most unforgettable character of the Bible. For Michael, Meghnad was a hero, Lakshman an ethical violator and a coward.

Can we admire Meghnad anymore? Can we mourn the sorrow of a Ram Rajya with Sita lost to the folds of earth from whence she had appeared at birth?

The beauty and greatness of our epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is that they exist in almost every nook and cranny of Indian life, in every local and vernacular version, far beyond the Brahminical Hinduism that has sought to clamp its muscle of purity on them. AK Ramanujan narrates a few of the endlessly innumerable ways in which the Ramayana has shaped our languages, our basic life lessons, and our rituals. When someone is talking endlessly about something, one says, “What’s this Ramayana about?” In Tamil, a narrow room is called a kishkindha, and a proverb about a dim-witted person says: “After hearing the Ramayana all night, he asks how Rama is related to Sita”. In a Bengali arithmetic textbook, children are asked to figure the dimensions of what is left of a wall that Hanuman built, after he had broken down parts of it in mischief. And to this, Ramanujan says, we must add an infinite number of marriage songs, place legends, temple myths, paintings, sculpture, and the many performing arts that echo bits and scraps of the Ramayana in every imaginable way.

A Hindu epic is such a pantheon of unforgettable characters and episodes that it is impossible for anyone touched by it to not create versions of it. My mind cries out for Apu, the child-protagonist of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s novel Pather Panchali . With a makeshift bow and arrow crafted from castaway twigs, the poor village boy spends hours daydreaming, suddenly transformed into a hero from the Ramayana or the Mahabharata . But he always chose to be Karna; his heart went out to the courageous hero who, he felt, got nothing but insult and injustice in his life. The hero who could have triumphed in the epic died broken, a dishonourable death, his prowess and generosity misremembered, cast into oblivion. Apu, the dreamy boy destined to be a suffering bohemian creative soul as an adult, cast his lot with Karna, spurning the nobility and triumphant glory of Arjun and Krishna. The Mahabharata , molten into a much beloved coming-of-age novel from the early twentieth century, became more magical for this unusual choice. And Apu was one of many; Karna, would be immortalized by the Marathi novelist Shivaji Sawant in his wildly popular novel, Mritunjaya, the death-conqueror. I remember my professor, the poet P Lal, who published the English translation of the novel, saying that Karna is the closest we have to a tragic hero.

The German critic Erich Auerbach told us the difference between Homeric and Biblical narration: Unlike the Homeric epics of Iliad and Odyssey, which lie and fabricate when necessary, biblical stories lay claim to the singularity of an absolute truth. “The Bible’s claim to truth is not only far more urgent than Homer’s,” Auerbach wrote, “it is tyrannical – it excludes all other claims.” 

The Hindu epics, with their playfulness and plurality, are much like the Hellenic pantheon and Homeric narration. As long as they have been around, their fluidity has seeped into all crevices of Indian life far more than a single absolute version could ever have done. Ramanujan tells the story of the foolish villager who went to a performance of the Ramayana on his wife’s insistence but fell asleep each night. Trying to lie desperately, he could only describe the epic in terms of the sensory experience that had touched him each night he had missed the story: “sweet” the night sweetmeats were stuffed into his sleeping mouth, “heavier and heavier” the night someone sat on his sleeping body, and “salty” the night a dog urinated into his sleeping mouth.

Is the Ramayana all of that? All these impossible flavours? Perhaps we’ll never know anymore, as now we have the authority of an official version enshrined in Ayodhya.

Saikat Majumdar is a novelist and critic. @_saikatmajumdar

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Exploring how religious and secular forces interact in the modern world.

Global Currents article

Secular india or hindu nation: a short history.

The Unfinished Business of Partition

The Partition of British India in August 1947 yielded two decolonized nations: India, a secular democracy, and Pakistan, a new homeland for the Muslims of South Asia. At 14–15% of the population of independent India, Muslims, numbering a little over 200 million, constitute a minority so large as to rival the populations of Muslim-majority Pakistan and Indonesia.

For the first 50 years after partition and independence, Indians voted consistently to retain the multi-religious plurality of their state, with equal rights for all citizens, and special protections for minorities. But the last quarter century or so since the mid–late 1990s has seen the rise of Hindu nationalist ideology, which seeks to rebuild India as a nation of Hindus. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has led the movement towards majoritarianism, targeting Muslims with a view toward rendering illegitimate their equal claim to Indian citizenship secured in India’s liberal Constitution of 1950.

Today the BJP has been in power for a decade, winning two consecutive national elections in 2014 and 2019, under the leadership of a populist strongman, Narendra Modi. He and his party are expected to win a third term, as India—the world’s largest democracy—goes to the polls in April and May this year, with almost 970 million registered voters and 2,660 registered political parties contesting elections .

The BJP started out in 1980 as a partisan outfit representing a fringe section of Hindus who were politically rightwing and socially conservative, believed that religious identity should be the basis of nationality, and wanted to carry forward what they perceived as the “unfinished business” of Partition, making India a Hindu counterpart to Muslim Pakistan. They had never bought into the central values of India’s struggle for freedom from British colonialism, principally non-violence and self-rule advocated for by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, and secularism and pluralism enshrined in the Constitution and practiced by Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s immensely loved and universally respected first prime minister from 1947 to 1964.

Such was the resentment among Hindu nationalists about the creation of Pakistan that on January 30, 1948, scarcely six months after independence, a far-right terrorist named Nathuram Godse along with his associates assassinated Mahatma Gandhi at his regular evening prayer meeting. This one act of ideological extremism, while intended to repudiate the Gandhian character of the nationalist movement and brand Pakistan as India’s permanent existential enemy, ironically proved to be suicidal as well. It was enough to send the Hindu Right into the political wilderness for the next 30–35 years.

Starting in 1980 when it was founded, the BJP, in a little over four decades, has built itself up as a behemoth, a seemingly unstoppable force, that now dominates India’s multi-party democracy. In the 2019 election, the BJP captured less than 40% of the vote share but won enough votes to hold 293 out of 543 seats in the Lok Sabha , the lower house of India’s Parliament (and it controls even more seats in alliance with its supporters and subordinates). The goal of the BJP is to redefine the Republic of India as a Hindu Rashtra or Hindu Nation—something that should have happened straight away in 1947, from the Hindu Right’s perspective.

People’s Nation or Ram’s Kingdom?

The BJP’s ascent to occupy centerstage in India has been built around a campaign to spread its core ideology of Hindu nationalism, called Hindutva, which projects Hindus as the original and rightful Indians, and Muslims as the descendants of invaders and proselytizers. Its most potent symbol has been the Hindu deity Ram, an avatar of the god Vishnu. In his human form as the heroic warrior-king of the kingdom of Ayodhya, Ram is the protagonist of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana , authored by the poet Valmiki and popular in different versions across the Indian subcontinent for at least 2000 years.

While the Ramayana as an epic poem has enjoyed a complex and multi-lingual literary career over the past two millennia, reaching every part of India, the BJP has sought to “make Ayodhya great again” so to speak, in a very targeted manner. Ayodhya, Ram’s mythic capital, has been since independence a rather sleepy little town in northern India, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the river Sarayu. While it is considered a holy place of pilgrimage for Hindus, it was never as well-known as the much larger and older city of Varanasi (also called Kashi or Benaras), some 250 kms further south and east down the river Ganga. Ayodhya is associated with the god Ram; Varanasi with the god Shiva.

At the end of the 1980s the BJP began to mobilize public sentiment against a small, historically obscure and architecturally insignificant mosque in Ayodhya, called the Babri Masjid, dated roughly to the reign of Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur (1483-1530 CE). Babur was a Chagatai Turk descended from both Timur and Genghis Khan, who established the Mughal Empire in India 500 years ago (r. 1526–30 CE). He ruled from Agra, which is about 500 km west of Ayodhya; it wasn’t until the reign of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal at Agra, that the capital was moved to Delhi (in 1638 CE).

Hindu nationalists claimed that the Babri mosque in Ayodhya stood exactly where there used to be a temple marking the very birthplace ( janma-bhoomi ) of Ram in his human form, thousands of years ago, as told in the epic. They demanded the removal of the mosque and its replacement by a temple for Ram ( Ram Mandir ), with the infant Ram ( Ram Lalla ) installed therein as the idol for Hindus to worship.

Starting in September 1990, Hindutva leaders mounted a nationwide campaign that culminated in the razing of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 by a mob of several hundred vandals and militants, who literally stormed the building and broke it down. The demolition triggered violence across the country, leaving a trail of destruction, and putting India’s Muslims on notice, though it wasn’t clear at that time what eventual fate awaited them in the future.

The next episode of mass violence against Muslims, much of it gruesome, took place 10 years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, in Gujarat, in February 2002 . At that time the Chief Minister of Gujarat, a large and prosperous state in western India, was Narendra Modi. Gujarat has several important ports on the Arabian Sea to the west of peninsular India, which gave it a flourishing culture of trade and commerce with the Mediterranean world, the Gulf, and East Africa from ancient times.

Historically, many of Gujarat’s wealthy maritime and business communities are composed of Muslims of different denominations. In 2002 the Modi administration appeared to aid and abet what many called a pogrom that left over 1000 dead and more than 2500 injured (according to government figures— actual numbers were much higher), the casualties overwhelmingly Muslim.

The BJP was voted out of power in the 2004 general election; it would take another decade for Modi to come to power as the head of the national government in New Delhi, in May 2014. Modi chose Varanasi as his electoral constituency, since it is the holiest city for Hindus, but he had his sights set on Ayodhya.

Ayodhya, 1992–2024

On January 22, 2024, India ’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed a brief ritual at a new temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, intended to install and infuse with life an idol of the deity Ram, represented as a 5-year-old human child carved out of black granite sourced from the southern state of Karnataka.

In Hindu practice, idols of deities must be ritually “ awakened” or “ enlivened” before they become active as objects of worship, theologically efficacious and interactively responsive to the prayers of their devotees. As an idol-maker in Tamil Nadu explained to the writer William Dalrymple , it is faith that transforms a mere sculpture into a sacred idol. Crucial in this passage from a lifeless representation to an embodiment of divinity, is the consecration of the idol and the opening of its eyes, which allows not only worshippers to see their god, but more importantly, the living deity to return their gaze. The opportunity for a precious moment of mutual beholding, darshan , is what draws Hindu believers to temples.

The story of Ram ’ s career on earth, the rama-katha , finds its definitive source in the Sanskrit epic by the classical poet Valmiki, the Ramayana . Ram the prince of Ayodhya goes into a 14 year-long exile on account of a succession struggle in his father ’ s kingdom, orchestrated by one of his stepmothers who wants her own son to be king. While Ram is wandering in the forest with his beautiful wife Sita and his loyal younger brother Lakshman, the powerful demon Ravan, king of Lanka, abducts Sita and imprisons her in his magnificent fortified capital.

Thereafter the trio return victorious to Ayodhya. But Ram’s deference to public opinion and his moral righteousness make him subject his beloved queen to a fire ordeal to prove that her virtue is intact despite her long captivity in Ravan ’ s palace. Only after Sita comes through the fire unscathed does he ascend the throne that was always rightfully his, to establish the perfect kingdom ( Ram Rajya ).

This tale travels all over the subcontinent and beyond, to Southeast Asia; it is told across languages and historical periods; it is attested for over two millennia in a number of versions and variations . Temples dedicated to Ram, as well as depictions of scenes from the Ramayana in temples for other gods like Shiva, have arisen over the centuries, and can be found today almost everywhere in India and overseas where there are Hindus. Ram appears in poetry and painting, music and dance, sculpture and architecture, prayer and pilgrimage, philosophy and theology coming down to us from ancient times.

The idol in Ayodhya is of an innocent Ram Lalla . The child form is key to the significance of the inaugural ritual on January 22, 2024. The temple in which Ram Lalla has been enshrined is supposed to mark the precise birthplace, janma-bhoomi , where the supreme god Vishnu was incarnated as the avatar Ram, prince and eventually sovereign of the kingdom of Ayodhya, in an earlier age of the world.

What distinguishes recent events at Ayodhya in the new Ram Mandir (temple for Ram that is still under construction), with the child deity, called Ram Lalla ? What sets the January 22 ritual apart from the temples, idols, narratives and communities of the devout that have been such an integral part of popular faith, literary culture, and sacred architecture for the greater part of India ’ s recorded history?

In part 2 of this essay, I will explore the ramifications of the history described so far for the political present.

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‘Religious triumphalism’: A grand Hindu temple opens on a controversial site in India 

On Jan. 22, a temple of Lord Ram will open its doors in Ayodhya, in northern India. The temple stands where the Babri mosque once existed, before it was torn down by a Hindu mob. The occasion marks a victory for Hindus and a sorrowful reminder for Muslims of the ongoing tensions between the two groups in a Hindu-majority country.

• By Sushmita Pathak

A construction crew works on Ram Mandir, a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Ram in Ayodhya, India, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Frenzied preparations are underway in this northern city to mark the opening of the grand temple for the Lord Ram, Hinduism’s most revered deities, culminating a decades-long Hindu nationalist pledge.

In northern India’s small town of Ayodhya, Hindu hymns are interspersed with the constant thud of construction work these days. 

Workers are pouring cement into newly laid sidewalks and adding the final touches to a wide boulevard that leads to a grandiose, pink sandstone structure with intricately carved pillars. 

This temple is dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Ram. To many Hindus, reclaiming it after years of controversy with the Muslim community over rights to the site represents victory.

The temple opens on Jan. 22, but even a glimpse of the shrine under construction leaves Hindu pilgrims overjoyed. 

“Feeling is like a miracle. It’s a very pure feeling that we can’t express by words — pure devotion,” said teenager Kritika Chaudhary, who traveled over 350 miles to see the temple with her family. 

The faith of millions of Hindus is tied to the temple, said Ram Chaudhary, who is named after the deity.

“We are so excited. We believe in Ram and to pay regards [and] respect to Lord Ram — that’s why we are here,” he said. 

The temple is also a win for Hindu nationalist politics in India during a crucial election year. 

“The opening of the Ram temple months before general elections underlines its political and religious significance in building a Hindu nationalist momentum ahead of the polls,” said Zoya Hasan, political scientist and professor emerita at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. 

Ayodhya, some 400 miles southeast of Delhi, is where Hindus believe Ram was born thousands of years ago as the son of an emperor. 

According to Hindu sacred texts, he is the ideal man. He obeys his stepmother when she banishes him from the kingdom. When a demon king kidnaps his wife, the warrior prince fights valiantly to save her and then returns to Ayodhya. Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, celebrates Ram’s triumphant return.

The mood now in Ayodhya is just as festive as Diwali, if not more, because Lord Ram is returning to Ayodhya once again, said local shopkeeper Suchi Kumar, who sells sweets near the new temple. 

“We’ve been waiting for this moment for 500 years,” he said. 

Hindus believe an ancient Ram temple existed in Ayodhya, at his exact birthplace. But in the 16th century, they say Mughal ruler Babur displaced their beloved deity by destroying it and built the Babri mosque instead. 

Despite little evidence to prove that the Babri mosque was built atop temple ruins, it became an epicenter of Hindu-Muslim tensions — which exploded on Dec. 6, 1992. 

Spurred by Hindu nationalist politicians from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tens of thousands of Hindus gathered in Ayodhya to reclaim what they believed was the birthplace of their god. 

On that winter day in 1992, protesters jumped police barricades and attacked the mosque with pickaxes and metal rods, flattening the three domes of the 16th-century mosque. Riots broke out in Ayodhya and spread across South Asia, killing hundreds in one of the bloodiest incidents in the region’s history. 

The fight later shifted to the legal arena, where it dragged on for nearly three decades. In 2019, India’s Supreme Court ruled that the disputed site would go to the Hindus. It is on this 2.77-acre patch of land that Modi will consecrate the imposing new Ram temple next week in a religious ceremony. 

“I’m fortunate to witness this blessed moment,” Modi said recently. “I’ve never been so emotional in my life.”  

The temple draws emotions of a different kind among Ayodhya’s Muslims. 

Mohammed Shahid is filled with sorrow every time he passes the temple. His grandfather was the last imam of the Babri mosque. As the mosque fell and riots erupted, Shahid, who was 22 at the time, took refuge in a police station, but other members of his family weren’t as lucky. 

“The rioters killed my father and uncle,” he said. They attacked his family’s shop and other Muslim shrines, tearing off pages of the Quran, he said. Dozens of Muslim homes were set on fire, including that of Azim Qadri, who was eight years old at the time.

Sensing the turmoil, Qadri’s father had sent him off to relatives in the next town a day earlier. He remembers feeling like his neighborhood had been hit by an earthquake when he returned. 

Qadri is now an activist and a member of several organizations working for the welfare of Muslims in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Ayodhya is located. 

He said local Muslims don’t want any more trouble. 

“Our mosque was snatched from us, but we have accepted our fate. Ayodhya’s Muslims want peace now,” he said. But he has an appeal for the prime minister: “Look after India’s Muslims, too. We are also your subjects.” 

Modi and his party insist that the temple in Ayodhya is not just for Hindus but for the whole nation and is part of India’s cultural renaissance.

Some Muslim families in Ayodhya are leaving town next week out of caution as Hindus flock to the temple from across the country. Hotel prices in and around the small town have skyrocketed. Chartered flights are crowding its recently opened airstrip. 

“There’s a lot of craze among people; people are waiting for the temple to open. They’re running out of patience at this time because this is a big, big civilizational moment,” said Ravi Karkala, a member of the temple’s trust.

It’s also a big moment for Modi’s party, the BJP, which led a grassroots movement in the 1980s and 90s to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya. The party rose to prominence in the years following the demolition, promising voters that they would build a Ram temple on the controversial site. 

While other parties dithered on the issue, “the BJP’s commitment for Ram temple, BJP’s commitment for the cause of Hindus has been unchallenged, and there has been no wavering,” said Sanjay Kumar, a political scientist with the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi.

The BJP has delivered on its promise — just in time for polls. Kumar said the Ram temple will greatly influence the upcoming electoral contest where Modi seeks a third term. 

“There are other factors which will help BJP, but if you compare the standalone Ram temple as an issue…this is going to be the biggest factor,” he said. 

In the days leading up to the temple’s inauguration, media networks are carrying wall-to-wall coverage about the preparations in Ayodhya, much of it gleeful and celebratory in tone. 

Some of India’s top industrialists and celebrities are set to attend next week’s ceremony alongside Hindu nationalist leaders. In neighborhoods across India, residents are organizing streaming parties to watch the consecration ceremony live and going door-to-door to distribute sweets and grains of rice considered auspicious. 

This sense of euphoria would have been unimaginable in the 1990s and early 2000s, Kumar said, when not many Indians approved of the demolition of the Babri mosque. To defuse tensions, many citizens wanted a hospital to be built on the disputed site, he said. 

That has changed. The political mood has shifted to the right, and the fringe ideology of Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, is front and center. 

“Hindutva politics is the mainstream politics. Hindutva is the way to move ahead. All political parties are trying to toe that line,” Kumar said. 

The shrine is “a symbol of religious triumphalism, a sign that this is becoming ever more a Hindu-first country,” author Ramachandra Guha, a vocal critic of Modi, wrote in a recent op-ed . 

Along with the consecration of a temple, “it’s also the consecration of religion in politics,” political scientist Hasan said. It “marks a decisive moment in the creation of a majoritarian nation.”

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Guest Essay

Modi’s Temple of Lies

By Siddhartha Deb

Mr. Deb is the author of the novel “The Light at the End of the World.”

The sleepy pilgrimage city of Ayodhya in northern India was once home to a grand 16th-century mosque, until it was illegally demolished by a howling mob of Hindu militants in 1992. The site has since been reinvented as the centerpiece of the Hindu-chauvinist “ new India ” promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In 2020, as Covid-19 raged unchecked across the country, Mr. Modi, the leader of the Hindu right, went to Ayodhya to inaugurate construction of a three-story sandstone temple to the Hindu god Ram on the site of the former mosque. Dressed in shiny, flowing clothes and wearing a white N95 mask, he offered prayers to the Ram idol and the 88-pound silver brick being inserted as the foundation stone.

I traveled to Ayodhya a year later and watched as the temple was hurriedly being built. But it seemed to me to offer not the promise of a new India so much as the seeds of its downfall.

Mr. Modi’s Hindu nationalism has fed distrust and hostility toward anything foreign, and the receptionists at my hotel were sullenly suspicious of outsiders. There was no hotel bar — a sign of Hindu virtue — and the food served was pure vegetarian, a phrase implying both Hindu caste purity and anti-Muslim prejudice.

Outside, devotional music blared on loudspeakers while bony, manure-smeared cows, protected by Hindu law, wandered waterlogged streets in the rain. The souvenir shops at the temple displayed a toxic Hindu masculinity, highlighted by garish shirts featuring images of a steroid-fed Ram, all bulging muscles and chiseled six-packs. Even Hanuman, Ram’s wise but slightly mischievous monkey companion, appeared largely in the snarling Modi-era version known as Angry Hanuman , which went viral in 2018 after Mr. Modi praised the design.

After a decade of rule by Mr. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, Hindu-majority India maintains the facade of a democracy and has so far avoided the overt features of a theocracy. Yet, as Ayodhya revealed, it has, for all practical purposes, become a Hindu state. Adherence to this idea is demanded from everyone, whether Hindu or not.

This is not sustainable, even if it seems likely that Mr. Modi will ride to a third victory in national parliamentary elections that begin Friday and conclude June 1. Mr. Modi’s India is marked by rampant inequality, lack of job prospects, abysmal public health and the increasing ravages of climate change. These crises cannot be addressed by turning one of the world’s most diverse countries into a claustrophobic Hindu nation.

Perhaps even the prime minister and his party can sense this. Their crackdowns on opposition political leaders, manipulation of electoral rolls and voting machines and freezing of campaign funds for opposition parties are not the actions of a confident group.

In January of this year, a wave of Hindu euphoria swept the nation as the temple I had watched being put together with cement and lies (there is no conclusive evidence supporting Hindu claims that Ram was a historical figure or that a temple to him previously stood there) was about to be inaugurated .

Newspapers devoted rapturous front pages to the coming occasion, and when I flew to my former home Kolkata on the eve of the big day, my neighbors there declared their anticipation by setting off firecrackers late into the night. The next morning, on Jan. 22, loudspeakers and television screens tracked me through the city with Sanskrit chants and images of the ceremony taking place at the temple. Mr. Modi, as usual, was at the center of every visual. Friends in Delhi and Bangalore complained about insistent neighbors and strangers knocking on their doors to share celebratory sweets. Courts, banks, schools, stock markets and other establishments in much of the country took a holiday.

The inauguration date seems to have been chosen carefully to overshadow Republic Day, on Jan. 26, which commemorates India’s adoption of its Constitution, amended in 1976 to affirm the country as a “socialist, secular, democratic” republic. Those values are fiercely in opposition to what Hindu nationalism has ushered in. The temple inauguration date, which will be celebrated annually, reduces the republic to secondary status next to Mr. Modi’s Hindu utopia.

A similar effort has been underway to diminish the importance of Aug. 15, marking Indian independence in 1947. In 2021, Mr. Modi announced that Aug. 14 would henceforth be Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, referring to the bloody division of the country into Hindu-majority India and an independent Muslim Pakistan in 1947, a murderous affair for Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike.

This was sold to the Indian public as underlining the need for unity, but it was also a reminder from Hindu nationalists that a section of Muslims broke off to form their own nation and that the loyalties of India’s remaining 200 million Muslims were suspect. Given that Hindu rightists participated in massacres, rapes and forced displacement during the partition, Mr. Modi’s weaponization of the suffering seems particularly reprehensible. I was born to a Hindu family, and my father, a refugee from the partition, never blamed Muslims his entire life.

There have been countless other such stratagems with the Hindu right in power. The old Parliament building, whose design features refer to India’s syncretic history — Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian — was replaced last year by a new structure that explicitly reduces India’s past to a monochromatic Hindu one.

In the new Parliament, the lotus flower, common in Hindu iconography and the symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party, runs amok as a motif. A statue atop the building of four back-to-back lions — India’s national symbol and a look back at its Buddhist past — has been altered so that the lions are no longer serene and meditative, as in the original, but snarling, hypermuscular Hindu beasts . Everywhere in India, roads and cities have been renamed to sever connections to centuries of Muslim history in favor of a manufactured Hindu one. On new highways through the state of Uttar Pradesh, where I traveled last summer, gleaming signboards pointed toward concocted Hindu sites but almost never toward the state’s rich repository of Muslim mosques, forts and shrines.

Knowledge and culture are being attacked along similar lines. Bollywood , Indian television and the publishing industry have become willing accomplices of Hindu chauvinists, churning out content based on Hindu mythology and revisionist history. In the news media, the few journalists and institutions unwilling to shill for the Hindu cause face legal threats and police raids .

In education, government institutions are run by ignorant functionaries of the ruling party , and from school textbooks to scientific research papers , the Hindu nationalist version of India is pushed forward, myth morphing into history. In the private universities that have begun to crop up in India, Mr. Modi’s government keeps a close eye on classes, panels or research that might be construed as criticizing his government or its idea of a Hindu India.

This cultural shift and the accompanying reduction of Muslims to alien intruders has been made possible by Mr. Modi delivering on his party’s three main promises to Hindu nationalists .

In 2019 he repealed the notional autonomy enjoyed for decades by the disputed Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, which the Hindu right had assailed as favoritism toward Muslims and victimization of Hindus. Later that year, Mr. Modi delivered on a second promise by introducing a law that ostensibly opened a pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted minorities from neighboring countries but whose true motive lay in that it pointedly excluded Muslims. In the northeastern state of Assam , a registration process had already been underway to disenfranchise Muslims if they could not provide elaborate documentation of their Indian citizenship. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s declared intention to establish a similar registration system nationwide hangs the threat of disenfranchisement over all of India’s Muslims.

The inauguration of the Ram temple delivered on the third and most important electoral promise. It announced, triumphantly, the climax of the battle to turn India into a Hindu nation. And yet after 10 years under Mr. Modi’s government, India is more unequal than it was under colonial British rule. In 2020 and 2021, it surpassed China as the largest source of international migrants to O.E.C.D. countries. Many of the undocumented migrants to be found pleading for entry on the U.S.-Mexico border are from India , and they include Hindus for whom India should be a utopia.

The Hindu right’s near-complete control of India may indeed deliver a third term for Mr. Modi, maybe even the absolute parliamentary majority his party wants in order to expand on the transformation it has begun.

But the truth is harder to hide than ever. Mr. Modi and his party are giving India the Hindu utopia they promised, and in the clear light of day, it amounts to little more than a shiny, garish temple that is a monument to majoritarian violence, surrounded by waterlogged streets, emaciated cattle and a people impoverished in every way.

Siddhartha Deb ( @debhartha ) is an Indian writer who lives in New York. His most recent novel is “The Light at the End of the World.” His new nonfiction book is “Twilight Prisoners: The Rise of the Hindu Right and the Fall of India.”

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An earlier version of this article misstated a detail about India’s Constitution. It described the country as a “socialist, secular, democratic” republic when it was amended in 1976, not when it was adopted in 1950.

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Dispute over mosque becomes religious flashpoint in India

An Aerial view shows Gyanvapi mosque, left, and Kashiviswanath temple on the banks of the river Ganges in Varanasi, India, Dec. 12, 2021. A group of Hindus petitioned a local court seeking access to pray inside the mosque compound, saying they believe the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, one of Hinduism’s holiest cities, was built on top of the ruins of a medieval-era temple and that the complex still houses Hindu idols and motifs, a claim that has been contested by the mosque authorities. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

FILE - In this Oct. 29, 1990, file photo, security officers guard the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, closing off the disputed site claimed by Muslims and Hindus. India’s Hindu nationalists have long claimed that thousands of medieval-era mosques are built on the sites of prominent temples that were demolished by Mughal rulers. One such campaign to reclaim these mosques culminated in 1992 with the destruction of the 16th century Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya by Hindu mobs. (AP Photo/Barbara Walton, File)

FILE- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi performs rituals during the groundbreaking ceremony of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Ram, at the site of a demolished 16th century mosque, in Ayodhya, India on Aug. 5, 2020. Hindus believe the site of the mosque was the exact birthplace of their god Ram. Its demolition in 1992 sparked massive communal violence across India that left more than 2,000 people dead, mostly Muslims, and catapulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to national prominence. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

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NEW DELHI (AP) — For nearly three centuries, Muslims and Hindus in India’s northern Varanasi city have prayed to their gods in a mosque and a temple that are separated by one wall. Many see it as an example of religious coexistence in a country where bouts of deadly communal violence are common.

That coexistence is now under threat due to a controversial court case.

A local court earlier this month began hearing a petition filed by a group of Hindus that seeks access to pray inside the Gyanvapi mosque compound, arguing it was built on top of the ruins of a medieval-era temple that was razed by a Mughal emperor. The petitioners say the complex still houses Hindu idols and motifs, a claim that has been contested by the mosque’s authorities.

The legal battle is the latest instance of a growing phenomenon in which Hindu groups petition courts demanding land they claim belongs to Hindus. Critics say such cases spark fears over the status of religious places for India’s Muslims, a minority community that has come under attack in recent years by Hindu nationalists who seek to turn officially secular India into an avowedly Hindu nation.

“The idea to bombard the courts with so many petitions is to keep the Muslims in check and the communal pot simmering,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst and commentator. “It is a way to tell Muslims that their public display of faith in India is no more accepted and that the alleged humiliation heaped on them by Muslim rulers of the medieval past should be redressed now.”

The court case involving the 17th century Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, one of Hinduism’s holiest cities, in many ways embodies India’s contemporary religious strife. The widely accepted consensus among historians is that it was built on top of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva after it was demolished by the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.

The two communities have in the past stuck to their claims but also made sure the dispute didn’t worsen. That changed last week when a local court in Varanasi ordered the mosque to be surveyed after five Hindu women filed a petition seeking permission to offer prayers there.

A video survey found a stone shaft alleged to be a symbol of Shiva inside a reservoir in the mosque used by Muslim devotees for ablution before offering prayers, according to Hari Shankar Jain, a lawyer representing the Hindu women.

“The land on which the mosque is built belongs to Hindus and should be returned to us,” Jain said.

Mosque representatives have refuted the claims. Rais Ahmad Ansari, a lawyer for the mosque’s committee, said the alleged stone shaft found in the reservoir was the base of a fountain.

The discovery of the alleged Hindu symbol led the local court in Varanasi to seal the premises, banning large Muslim gatherings inside. India’s Supreme Court later overturned that judgment and allowed Muslims to pray in the mosque. But it also ordered local authorities to seal off and protect the area where the stone shaft was found, dispossessing Muslims of a portion of the mosque they had used until this month.

The dispute over the mosque and survey has now been taken up by a higher court in Varanasi, with hearings set to continue Thursday.

Lawyers representing the Muslim side have questioned the legal basis for the survey, arguing that it was against the law and a precedent most recently upheld by the Supreme Court in 2019.

India’s Hindu nationalists have long claimed that thousands of medieval-era mosques are built on the sites of prominent temples that were demolished by Mughal rulers. Many historians have said the numbers are exaggerated, arguing that a few dozen temples were indeed razed but largely for political reasons and not religious.

In the late 1980s, Hindu nationalist groups started campaigns to reclaim these mosques. One such campaign culminated in 1992 with the destruction of the 16th century Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya by Hindu mobs.

Hindus believe the site of the mosque was the exact birthplace of their god Ram. Its demolition sparked massive communal violence across India that left more than 2,000 people dead — mostly Muslims — and catapulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to national prominence.

A grand Hindu temple is now being constructed on the site after India’s Supreme Court handed over the disputed land to Hindus in a controversial 2019 judgement. However, the court assured Muslims that the order would not be used as a precedent or pave the way for more such contentious cases.

The court in its judgment cited the 1991 Places of Worship Act, which forbids the conversion of a place of worship and stipulates that its religious character should be maintained as “it existed” on August 15, 1947, the day India won its independence from British colonialists.

Lawyers representing the Muslim side say the Gyanvapi mosque court case goes against that very judicial commitment.

“The act was seen as sacrosanct, that it was there to not reopen old controversies. But allowing a survey is doing exactly that — you are scraping at old wounds. This is what it was meant to prohibit,” said Nizam Pasha, a lawyer representing the mosque’s committee.

The Gyanvapi mosque case also fits into a narrative of Modi’s party, which has long campaigned to reclaim what it calls India’s lost Hindu past. Many party leaders have openly suggested they would take such legal battles head on.

Critics say the party does so by providing support to Hindu nationalist groups that often contest such cases in court. Modi’s party has denied this, saying it cannot stop people from going to the courts.

Pasha, the lawyer, said the filing of such court cases was a “very carefully thought out pattern” meant to bolster Hindu nationalists.

He said the cases are brought by ordinary Hindu citizens as plaintiffs who say they are devotees of a deity asking for the right to pray at disputed sites. Once the matter goes to court, the Hindu plaintiffs then push for searches of the sites and present evidence that is used to build a media narrative and galvanize the public, he said.

“It is very difficult to convince a public then, already influenced by the media, that this is not true, that this is a fountain,” Pasha said of the Gyanvapi mosque case.

Meanwhile, Hindu nationalists have begun eyeing more such mosques.

Last week, a local court accepted a petition to hear a case on the site of another mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura city, located next to a temple, that some Hindus claim is built on the birthplace of the Hindu god Krishna. Similarly, another court in New Delhi heard arguments this week on restoring a temple that Hindu petitioners say existed under a mosque built at the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Qutub Minar. The court said it will deliver a verdict next month.

Many other cases are expected to take years to resolve, but critics say they will help Modi’s party as it prepares for elections in 2024.

“These cases help Hindu nationalists with a groundswell of support for their divisive politics. And that’s what they need,” said Mukhopadhyay, the political analyst.

Associated Press writer Biswajeet Banerjee reported from Lucknow.