About an hour and a half of easy driving from Indore is the historic city of Dhar. Today a quaint little township with little in the way of action or buzz, this was once the center of one of the most fiercely contested regions in the subcontinent, Malwa. First entering prominence with the advent of the Paramaras in the tenth century. From that point on, the city built and retained a reputation for culture and learning for at least four unbroken centuries before starting its yield to nearby Mandu.
Dhar is littered with countless buildings of historical significance, which makes it a useful portal to the India of medieval times. Unfortunately, it also makes the city a flashpoint of communal unrest and political controversies. That’s because for a good part of the period in question, Malwa was under Islamic rule. Naturally, this meant the coming in contact of two objectively disjoint cultures, a situation that has rarely been without its fair share of violence. Of all its structures, our attention is on what many call the “Bhojashala.” As is the case with countless other structures all over the country, this one is now an Islamic place of worship, the Kamal Maula Mosque. One can already see where this is going now. To Muslims, it’s a mosque and it was not built over any Hindu temple. To Hindus, it was Bhojashala or Bhoja’s school before the invaders turned it into a mosque. Déjà vu?
But wait, this doesn’t sound like Babri or Gyanvapi where temples were desecrated. This was a school. So why the fuss? Because the school also had a temple. To Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning, wisdom, and arts. So, one could say a temple was desecrated to build a mosque in its stead. While not as big-ticket a case as Ayodhya, Mathura, and Kashi, Dhar too has had its share of headlines over the past few decades. For the longest time, the issue has been placated with a simple administrative accommodation where both Hindus and Muslims are allowed to conduct their sacerdotal activities on a staggered basis. Until 2003, Hindus could pray here all day long once a year, on Basant Panchami, also known as Sarasvati Puja. Muslims got every Friday through 3:00 PM for their weekly congregation. Starting 2003, Hindus can also have it every Tuesday. Although not ideal, this still gives both parties enough to keep them from rioting. But what if the dates clashed?
This happened in 2013, when Basant Panchami fell on a Friday. Muslims were entitled to the place between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM, but Hindus were entitled to it all day long. Neither party budged. Result? Violence. Three years later, the situation recurred. The ASI again made a similar accommodation—Hindus all day, with a two-hour window from 1:00 PM through 3:00 PM for Muslims. Which triggered the same kind of unrest. Clearly, this solution was not sustainable in the long run. Therefore, calls for a final settlement have started gaining traction over the years. Either a temple, or a mosque, can’t carry on being both. So that’s the controversy. Does it hold water? Is Kamal Maula Mosque really the Bhojashala?
The only reasonable way to settle the debate is by answering the following five questions:
Was the mosque built with temple materials?
Was the term Bhojashala in use before the British?
Was the place used as a school before the Muslims?
Did they worship Saraswati at this place?
Was it already gone before the Muslims came?
Every single one of these questions need to have clear, irrefutable answers before we can establish the true identity of the structure. That’s precisely what we’ll attempt to do here.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Schandillia to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.