Women perform Puja in mosque inside Taj Mahal premises

On Saturday, in a bid to reclaim what rightly belongs to them, a group of women performed Puja in the mosque located inside the Taj Mahal premises. They claimed that the monument originally was a Shiv temple. There are many people who strongly believe that Taj Mahal used to be a Shiv Temple (Tejomahalya) until a cruel Mughal ruler destroyed and converted it into the present-day tomb. According to a reputed New York Architect, Prof Marvin Mills, Taj Mahal is Hindu Monument. In a letter published in New York Times, he said, “New information and analysis have come forth to constitute a compelling argument that the Taj was actually a former Hindu palace occupied and converted to a tomb by the Moguls…There are many other inconsistencies in the Taj legend. The building to its left is now a mosque. Had it been built originally as a mosque it would almost certainly have been oriented directly to Mecca, instead of due west. The four “minarets” that surround the Taj mausoleum are inappropriate, for they logically should have been in front of the “mosque” for convenient calls to prayer.”

However, this is the first incident of performing Puja inside the Taj Mahal. It is seen as retaliation to the namaz performed by local Muslims inside the monument on Tuesday despite the ASI’s ban on it. The women who performed the Puja said that Hindus have all the rights to worship there, if Muslims can perform namaz.

Incident of namaz getting performed inside the disputed monument was not reported, but the Puja performed by Hindu women is being sensationalised as if they have committed some sort of sin. If namaz is allowed then there should not be apprehensions about Puja too.

The Times of India has quoted Meena Devi Diwakar, district president of Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad, saying, “If Muslims are being allowed to offer namaz here on all the days, then even we can do our puja at our Tejo Mahalaya.” The women performed puja according to Hindu customs and traditions. They also poured holy Ganga Jal inside the mosque premises and then chanted “Om Namashway.”

According to a firstpost report, Meena Diwakar said, “Today we performed pooja in our Taj Mahal, sprinkled Gangajal to purify it. Some people had made it impure by offering namaz. They have Fridays for that purpose. That is why we performed aarti.” Diwakar also said that her organization would continue to perform aarti and purify the Taj Mahal with Gangajal so long as the norms of ASI are violated by others. She said, “The authorities need to stop them first, and then they can stop us.” She further said, “That is good. There is no problem with that. If they can take their Qurans and offer namaz inside the historical premises, why can’t we take our pooja materials inside? We went there in a peaceful manner. If the authorities think we have done something wrong, we will face the action. But first, they have to charge them too.”

ASI Superintending Archaeologist (Agra circle) Vasant Swarankar said that action will be initiated against the right wing activists, if the CCTV footage proves that they performed Puja inside the mosque.

Meanwhile, Govind Parashar, leader of Rashtriya Bajrang Dal has given a statement in favour of performing Puja inside the Taj Mahal and also raised questions against the authorities. He said, “If no action is being taken against Muslims for offering namaz and violating ASI ban, why should action be taken against the Hindus?”

Displaying the religious bigotry, Sadik Ali, the Imam of the mosque said that ‘religiously, performing puja at the mosque is absolutely wrong.’