A small group of right-wing activists in India have held a special ceremony inside the Taj Mahal to “purify” it after a Muslim prayer was offered there allegedly defying a court order.
Three women entered the Taj on Saturday and performed an aarti – a Hindu ritual of worship – in a mosque built inside the world-renowned monument, in protest of the Muslims offering namaz there on Wednesday.
The women also sprinkled Gangajal – the water from the Ganges considered holy by the Hindus – to purify the 17th-century monument.
"We performed 'puja' at our Tejo 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," Meena Diwakar of Rashtriya Bajrang Dal told news agency ANI.
Some Hindu organisations believe that the Taj was originally a Hindu temple, Tejo Mahalay - built to Lord Shiva - that predates Shahjahan - the Mughal emperor who built the ivory-white marble mausoleum to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
Last week, the Archaeological Survey of India – the body responsible for the upkeep of the Taj – banned namaz inside the Taj on all days except on Fridays when the monument is closed for public.
Despite the notification, namaz was offered on Wednesday and some Hindu organisations had threatened to perform an aarti inside the monument, criticizing the authorities for failing to stop the Muslims offering namaz.
Ms Diwakar threatened to repeat the ritual.
But the Muslim organisations say they were being stopped arbitrarily and that they have been praying inside the Taj Mahal mosque for centuries.
Ambiguity over the Supreme Court order
The Supreme Court of India, in a recent order, affirmed the decision of the local administration to bar visitors from outside Agra- the city where the Taj is situated, from Friday prayers in the mosque of the Taj, on security grounds.
The Archaeological Survey of India contends the Supreme Court order implies that namaz can only be offered on Fridays by local residents, whereas the committee members say the order means that free entry for locals is on Fridays, while on all other days, anyone who has bought a ticket can offer namaz.
They contend that the Supreme Court order merely bars non-locals on Fridays while there is no word on not allowing namaz on other days.
“There is a tradition that [Friday prayers] can only be offered if five-time ‘namaz’ is performed in a mosque every day," Ibrahim Zaidi, president of Mosque Taj Mahal management Committee told the Hindustan Times.
"The Taj Mahal came up after the mosque. ‘Namaz’ has been offered at this mosque since the past 400 years while the Acts governing the monument came into existence in 1958,”
