The temple today is 55 feet tall. Before its upper part was destroyed on Aurangzeb's orders in anticipation of his visit to Vrindavan in 1670 AD, the… - Praful Goradia

It is strange that what a writer on Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and the Dargah Sharief at Ajmer has said about the role of Raja Jaichand should have precipitated our visit to Kannauj on August 2, 2001. Equally strange is the fact that our interest in this great capital city of ancient Hindustan was first aroused in 1983 by Dr N .K. Bezbaruah, the versatile grand old man of Assam. He then told us how proud he was to claim direct lineage from one of the chosen Kannauj Brahmins, who were invited specially to introduce Hinduism amongst the Ahoms who had captured power in Assam and had set up their capital city at Sibsagar in the 13th century. Incidentally, the Ahoms belonged to the Shan race whose base was in Thailand. The doctor was bemoaning the paradox of his clan being, on the one hand, so proud of its Hindu ancestry and, on the other, a few sons of the same proud families taking to gun s and terrorism, as it were, against the rest of Hindustan.

The masjids being near the centre of Dhar, we were able to talk to several local residents who were not only pained at the prohibitory orders for Bhojshala, but also made repeated references to the Lat masjid. The central thrust of their complaint was that most of them could not afford to travel to distant places of pilgrimage. For them, therefore, Bhojshala represents about the only holy place within their reach. If access to that also is denied, were they expected to become Muslims, so that they could go in every Friday? *There is, as it were, a 364 day ban on the entry of Hindus to what is essentially a Hindu heritage and continues to be called Saraswati mandir. Even the Muslims call it Bhojshala masjid and show little interest in worshipping at this converted temple. Why should Bhojshala be inaccessible to the community to which it belongs?

The author prefers to quote either British authorities or Muslim chroniclers so that neither authenticity nor objectivity is questioned. However, before moving on to the next monument, he wishes to iterate that additions and alterations of such historic edifices are still taking place. He was quite put off by the white-washing, however fresh or glistening, that had been done on the granite pillars and ceiling of the Jama masjid. The Makhdum Jahaniya fortunately has not suffered this ugly transformation. On the other hand, the Jami masjid at Etawah, only about a hundred kilometres away, which we visited the previous day, was a lso a casualty of whitewashing. What should be the role of the Archaeological Survey is best answered by its directors and, perhaps, the Ministry of Culture.