Origins of historic sites remain shrouded in mystery

Watching courtroom drama movies, whether in English, Hindi or Telugu has always been a favourite pastime with me. The Hindi movie ‘The Taj Story’ was among the recent ones I watched. It was about the Taj Mahal and the conflict of opinions regarding its original builder and its true nature as a monument that also has religious significance. The plot and its presentation on the screen set me off on a search for similar monuments elsewhere in the country and the world, whose backgrounds and stories are shrouded in mystery and controversy.

The investigation proved most rewarding indeed. It showed up several well-known monuments such as the Giza Pyramid in Egypt, the Charminar in Hyderabad, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Qutub Minar in Delhi, the Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square, London, and the Joseph Stalin style statues in Soviet Union, apart from many others, including well-known monuments in countries like Japan.

Their cultural significance, rich histories and interesting backgrounds notwithstanding, these monuments have been unable to escape the embarrassment of being subjects of conflict, for one reason or the other. Their architecture and the art that goes into them are important sources for understanding the complexity of, and interpreting, their history, a situation that has often led to their becoming battlegrounds for varying and often contradictory narratives. And, as societies evolved, their way of perceiving the ideas behind such monuments also changed over time; a dynamic phenomenon that has often caused the interplay between memory and modern values to lead to animated discussion and debate.

In the very first leg of my investigation, it was no less than the legendary Taj Mahal of India that I found. The 17th century white marble mausoleum is generally believed to have been built by Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan. There have, however, been claims that it was originally a Hindu temple, specifically Tejo Mahalaya. While professional scholars rely on verifiable historical and architectural evidence, some groups have favoured the revisionist narrative. Courts of law as well as the Archaeological Survey of India have, however, repeatedly dismissed such claims as not being backed by credible proof. But the controversy is far from over.

The controversy surrounding the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the adjacent Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi is another such a contentious issue and centers on historical temple demolition, ongoing legal battles over religious rights, and recent modern architectural corridor developments

The Ayodhya temple dispute involves historical, religious, and political tensions centered on whether a Hindu temple was destroyed to build the 16th-century Babri Masjid. Key flashpoints include the 1992 mosque demolition, the 2019 Supreme Court ruling, and recent trust management scandals. The demolition of the Babri Masjid occurred on December 6, 1992, when a large crowd of Hindu nationalist volunteers, known as kar sevaks, brought down the 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya. The event was organized by groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who claimed that the site was the birthplace of Lord Ram. The destruction sparked widespread religious riots across India, resulting in the deaths of around 2,000 people. The event deeply changed Indian politics and society, leading to decades of court battles. Finally, in November 2019, the Supreme Court of India awarded the disputed land to the Hindu community for the construction of a temple and allocated an alternative plot of land for a new mosque.

Another example is that of the Easter Islands Moai Statues in Chile, which are huge stone monoliths carved centuries ago by an isolated Pacific culture. Controversy about their history centres on how the ancient Rapa Nui civilization carved and moved nearly 1,000 massive stone figures weighing tons. Recent archaeological findings show the statues have hidden bodies beneath the soil.

Another instance of an ancient entity, this time a city, being embroiled in controversy about its origin, is that of the Mesoamerican city, Teotihuacán. Archaeologists still debate on who built the city. While popular assumption links it to the Aztecs, the city predates the Aztec empire by centuries, leaving its true original founders shrouded in mystery.

The search unearthed yet another similar example in the Yasukuni Shinto Shrine, Tokyo, a shrine built in 1869 and is dedicated to more than 2.5 million Japanese soldiers, who died during wars since the 19th century. It also includes the names of soldiers who fought during the two gruesome and bloody World Wars. Funded by the government until 1945, the monument was central to the state religion, Shintoism, which helped the Japanese government to motivate countrymen to fight. However, those honored include 14 war criminals, a fact which the Koreans and Chinese find unacceptable, on account of their bitter memories of the Japanese army’s invasion in 1910.

The Nelson’s Column was another prized discovery in my journey. It is a column constructed to honor Admiral Horatio Nelson, who is considered a hero among the British for defeating French leader Napoleon Bonaparte and died during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Nelson, however, was a supporter of the slave trade and was a ‘white supremacist’ who, while people around him were slowly raising their voices against the discrimination toward black people, firmly stuck to his racist views. Stalin was a Soviet revolutionary and politician who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held office as the General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952 and as the Premier from 1941 until his death. He eventually became a dictator by the 1930s. His statues in the Soviet Union have, likewise, been the topic of much contention, as the brutal acts and controversial decisions associated with his reign have long been criticized.

The history of Charminar, built in 1591 CE by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, is also a subject that has given rise to raging historical debates centering on whether it commemorated the end of a plague/cholera epidemic, marked the second Islamic millennium, or honored a romance, alongside modern socio-religious controversies regarding the adjacent Bhagyalakshmi temple.

Another internationally well-known monument belonging to the same genre, whose background has raised questions of concern to different religions, is the Qutub Minar. Some people claim that the minaret sits on a primarily Hindu/Jain temple site (associating it with deities like Lord Vishnu or astronomical study by Varāhamihira. the 6th century ADE astronomer who was one of the ‘Nine Jewels’ or ‘Navaratnas’ in the royal court of King Vikramaditya) and demand legal rights for worship restoration. Established historians and archaeological surveys emphasize that while the complex unmistakably repurposed materials from destroyed local temples to demonstrate conquest and the shift in political power, the 73-meter minaret itself was conceived and built as an Islamic victory tower by the early Delhi Sultanate. My next prominent find, incidentally, was one of the original Seven Wonders of the world, the Egyptian Great Pyramid in the city of Giza. The controversies surrounding its background and origin involve alternative dating claims, slave labor misconceptions, and lost civilization theories that contrast sharply with mainstream archaeological evidence. Proponents of alternative theories argue that the structure predates ancient Egyptian civilization, attributing it to lost civilizations like Atlantis or extra-terrestrial intervention.

Clearly, the history of many famous monuments continues to remain a fertile subject for researchers and archeologists to raise new conflicts or change existing narratives!

(The writer was formerly

Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr MOHAN KANDA

Dr MOHAN KANDA[email protected]