The controversy created around the wazukhana, or ablution pond of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi containing a Shivlinga, has become a bitter legal dispute. Prof Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, a highly-regarded engineering professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in the Banaras Hindu University and the mahant or head priest of the renowned Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, says the Hindutva brigade has latched on to the Shivlinga claim motivated purely by politics. But their claim is also based on an incorrect religious premise, he tells Rashme Sehgal in an interview. Edited excerpts:
Rashme Sehgal: As the head priest of Sankat Mochan and Varanasi resident, what do you make of the claim that the fountain of the Gyanvapi mosque is actually a Shivlinga?
Vishwambhar Nath Mishra: So many crucial issues need to be addressed in our city, so why has this issue become so important? It is obvious this is being done for political gains. This claim that a Shivlinga has been found in the wazukhana is very strange. If the
— source newsclick.in | 19 Jul 2023