Towards the end of 1926, the first English biography of Savarkar titled The Life of Barrister Savarkar was published in Madras under a curious pen na… - Vikram Sampath

I was to slowly discover that Savarkar was a bundle of contradictions and a historian’s enigma. He simultaneously means many things to many people. An alleged atheist and a staunch rationalist who strongly opposed orthodox Hindu beliefs and the caste system and dismissed cow worship as mere superstition, Savarkar was also the most vocal political voice for the Hindu community through the entire course of the Indian freedom struggle.... A feted revolutionary who created an intellectual corpus of literature that inspired the revolutionary movement in India for decades, Savarkar was also a passionate and sensitive poet, a prolific writer and playwright, and a fiery orator. ...The social reformer in him strove to dismantle the scourges of untouchability and caste hierarchies, and advocated a unification of Hindu society.

After initially denying that there was even a temple at the site, contesting that it was not even Aurangzeb who got this temple demolished, and even denying the legitimacy of the Masir-i-Alamgiri, the plaintiff side tried other tactics to deflect the issue. In the process, they ended up exposing the demolition of so many temples by Aurangzeb that it contradicted their original claims, and also those of Faruki in his hagiographical account that Aurangzeb was a very tolerant and inclusive ruler. For instance, the plaintiffs argued that there was another temple on the banks of the Ganga called Madhodaska Dharahara, which too was demolished by Aurangzeb in his time and a mosque with high minarets constructed over it. The Muslim side argued that it is possible that it was this temple that might have been the one spoken about in Masir-i-Alamgiri.

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 washed their dirty feet and spat out, overwhelmed everyone.