The discovery of their Mahadev, and more so the humiliation that he had been subjected to by concealing the idol in an ablution tank where people was… - Vikram Sampath

These anecdotes are not just mine, but they could be of any historian who dares to wade through some of the no-go waters of Indian history or challenge supposed sacrosanct icons.

By 1393 ce, the Sharqui dynasty had replaced the Tughlaqs with the centre of power in neighbouring Jaunpur. This further eclipsed the already diminished importance of Varanasi. The city hardly features in the annals of the Sharqui kingdom. Under Ibrahim Shah of this dynasty, the Atala mosque of Firoz Shah, which had been left incomplete, was completed in 1408. Construction of several other mosques was completed with stones and materials belonging to demolished temples from the fifth to fourteenth centuries. The Padmeshwara inscription mentioned above was transported all the way from Varanasi to Jaunpur to be set in the walls of the Lal Darwaza Masjid there. The masjid was built in 1447 by Bibi Raji, the queen of Sultan Mahmud Sharqui. Several stone pillars from the Gupta period were also used as stools in the mosque gardens.40 Hence, evidently, the debris of demolished temples was being carried to Jaunpur and steadily used in mosque construction.

There is a mosque known as Har Tirath mosque, near the famous Har Tirath temple, which also appears to have been constructed of the materials of some old buildings. That was a temple of the Hindus known as Krittivaseshwara. The historical documents showed that this temple was constructed in an irregular manner in 1077 Hijri (1666 ce) after demolishing a temple, as per the orders of Aurangzeb.