Is it Taj Mahal or Tejo Mahalaya?

Allahabad High Court dismissed a petition filed by BJP leader Rajneesh Singh seeking a fact-finding panel to determine “the true history of Taj Mahal“, and to open more than 20 sealed “rooms” to determine if any idols of Hindu gods have been found within the premises of the monument.

Diya Kumari, a BJP MP from Rajsamand and a member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur, had said the land on which the Taj stands belonged to her ancestors, and “if the court orders us to do so, we will provide the documents”.

Some BJP leaders have suggested over the years that the Taj was built much before Shah Jahan and is a Hindu temple. Vinay Katiyar, a BJP member of the Rajya Sabha at the time, claimed that the monument was a Shiva temple called Tejo Mahalaya, which was “originally” built by Hindu rulers.

The Tejo Mahalaya claim was first made in 1989 by a historian named P N Oak in a book. It is said that he made arduous efforts to establish his idea, and even petitioned the Supreme Court, which in 2000 commented that he had a “bee in his bonnet”. 

Taj Mahal is a global symbol of India and one of the world’s most recognized monuments, considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was constructed by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1648.

The Taj incorporates elements of Indo-Islamic and Timurid architecture and is often seen as a natural progression from older monuments, such as Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi.

It is surrounded by a garden, which is part of a larger complex comprised of geometrical grids enclosed within walls measuring 305 meters by 549 meters. The mosque, the guest house, the main gateway, and the outer courtyard were completed in 1653.

 Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahan’s beloved wife, is buried beneath the breathtakingly beautiful monument. Shah Jahan was subsequently buried there as well.

Despite being regarded as an immortal symbol of love, historians have argued that it was more a monument to Shah Jahan’s ambition than to his love for Mumtaz and a declaration of the power and glory of the Mughal empire.

Ebba Koch, an art historian, wrote that the Taj Mahal was built for posterity.

On the exterior of the mausoleum are panels inlaid with Quranic verses that are written in calligraphy. A minaret stands at each of the four corners of the platform on which the mausoleum stands.

A garden lies to the south of the tomb. It is divided into quadrants by waterways, which, according to Catherine Asher, a historian of Islamic and Indian art, resemble the streams of paradise described in the Quran.

In Asher’s view, the garden was modeled after the Persian concept of the garden of paradise, which was adopted by the Mughals. 

What’s up with Akshar Purushottam Swami Temple?

 MS Shah, the chief justice of the Bombay High Court, presided over a preliminary meeting between two warring factions of the Akshar Purushottam Swami temple in Haridham Sokhna, Vadodara, popularly known as the Sokhda Swaminarayan sect. Two factions started fighting after Hariprasad Swami, the presiding swami, died in July 2021.  

 As a result of the demise of 87-year-old Swami in July 2021, a conflict over the administration and chairmanship of the trust has evolved into a dispute over the right to spiritual life and access to the trust’s assets between the two groups.

He was the only seer to have occupied the Gadi as the Trust’s President since the early 1970s under being the founder of the Sokhda sect. There has never been a previous example of electing a successor in the sect.

In the wake of his death, speculations about his successor gained momentum with Premswaroop Swami and Prabodh Swami being the top contenders. Hariprasad Swami appointed a committee during his lifetime that ruled both his disciples should run the trust jointly, but this led to a conflict.

Counsel for Prabodh Swami – who was considered to be the spiritual successor to Hariprasad Swami – has testified in the Gujarat High Court that Premswaroop Swami – who was responsible for the non-spiritual administration of the trust – presented allegedly forged documents to claim that Hariprasad Swami handed over the presidency to him.

A private secretary of Hariprasad Swami filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court seeking the release of seers held hostage on the Sokhda campus since December. Also, Jani has challenged Premswaroop Swami’s claim to the presidency.

Similarly, Jaani is challenging Premswaroop Swami’s claim to the presidency. The HC has mandated that the Prabodh Swami group contest Premswaroop Swami’s claim to the presidency in a competent forum in the absence of a habeas corpus petition. The two sides have agreed to mediate on other contentious issues.

Gunatit Charan Swami, 67, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his room on the premises of the Sokhda dham on April 27. According to Vadodara Superintendent of Police Rohan Anand, the saint died by hanging on April 27, and the trust administration had decided to ‘hide the facts from the police.

This trust, a breakaway faction from the BAPS (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha) – which was separated from the original Vadtal Swaminarayan Gadi in 1900 – has followers across the the the country as well as in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. However, the sect has only campuses in India so far, whereas BAPS has campuses all over the world. Hadham Sokhada also has women followers, which caused it to break away from BAPS, which prohibits women from joining as disciples or seers.

According to Pavtira Jani’s petition to the HC, Premswaroop Swami and his supporters, including Joint Secretary of the Trust JM Dave and Swami Tyagvallabhdas, had illegally detained the resident saints, male and female, who followed Prabodh Swami, on the Sokhda campus since December 2021 to “usurp the trust properties and control” and “prevent them from breaking away to continue spiritual campaigns in the name of the So

According to the petition, the saints and devotees were also forced to surrender their cellphones and passports, among other belongings, to keep them confined.

In a habeas corpus hearing before the Gujarat High Court on April 21, about 150 male and female seers from the trust appeared via video conferencing from the premises of the Vadodara district court and sought freedom to leave the Sokhda campus. Women seers and disciples were directed by a division bench of Justice Sonia Gokani and Justice Mauna Bhatt to seek shelter in Ahmedabad while male seers and disciples were directed to head to the Bakrol campus of the trust in Anand district.

Premswaroop Swami, JM Dave, and Tyagvallabh Swami were also ordered not to visit the two premises or make contact with the seers and disciples evacuated from Sokhna.

What is the disagreement concerning the Sokhda Swaminaryan trust’s presidency?

A trust committee announced that following the death of Hariprasad Swami, his closest disciples – Premswaroop Swami and Prabodh Swami – would “jointly carry out the legacy and charitable work of the trust”. The disciples recall that Prabodh Swami delivered sermons as Hariprasad, but Premswaroop Swami was involved in the administrative work of the trust during the life of Hariprasad.

Jani, through his counsel, informed the court that Premswaroop Swami “shockingly announced” himself as President by stating that Hariprasad resigned from the post of the President and the trust in August 2018 and appointed Premswaroop as his replacement. Jiani contends that Hariprasad Swami did not mention to anyone the 2018 resolution as claimed by Premswaroop Swami-in which he allegedly named the latter as the sole authority President of the trust after resigning.

r much deliberation, the two conflicting groups decided to choose an arbitrator – the proposal for mediation was initially turned down by the Premswaroop Swami group. The counsel for Premswaroop Swami, senior advocate Sudhir Nanavati, informed the court in the hearing before the HC on May 2 that the party had agreed to choose an arbitrator. Accordingly, the HC has appointed retired Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court MS Shah as arbitrator and has directed the two parties to file their mediation reports by June 13.

In any case, both parties had agreed to meet at the Mediation Centre of the Gujarat High Court on May 9 to try to reach a mutual understanding over the contentions and division of the sect before Justice Shah is asked to join in mediation.

Officials with the petitioner’s party, however, indicated that the Presidentship issue has been dropped from the mediation as the Prabodh Swami group plans to challenge Premswaroop Swami’s claim in a competent forum.

In the mediation process, the ideology of the group is now at the fore. Those in favor of a united sect state that the Premswaroop Swami group has asked the Prabodhswami group not to engage in spiritual discourses or activities in the name of the Haridham sect after separation. Those who support Prabodhswami, however, say that because he has largely been associated with sermons after Hariprasad Swami, the sect’s followers automatically view him as their spiritual guru, and “no one can stop him from reaching out to them”.

Another contentious issue is the large assets of the sect, including campuses, money, and other spiritual data. Despite both groups claiming that the other has destroyed important data and funds tracking, it has been noted that four large donations were received by the trust during Hariprasad Swami’s last four foreign discourses during his lifetime. Also expected to be discussed will be the way forward for the divided groups in the use of the title of the Haridham sect and the intellectual property rights to discourses delivered by Hariprasad Swami during his lifetime. The Sokhda campus is said to have lost a stash of 50 TB of data containing Hariprasad Swami’s sermons.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma