European accounts of Ayodhya over the last 300 years provide unbiased and irrefutable evidence that Ram Janmasthan was desecrated by Mughals to build the Babri Masjid on top. Meenakshi Jain’s path breaking book, “The Battle for Rama” provides a detailed outline of these accounts.

1776: Joseph Tieffenthaler, a Jesuit missionary and one of the earliest European geographers to visit Ayodhya made detailed sketches of the area & described how the temple at Rama’s Janamsthan was destroyed by Mughal rulers.

He clearly mentions Hindus worshipping a Vedi (cradle) and doing Pradakshina around the site 3 times where the so called Babri Masjid was. He does not mention anything about Muslims offering Namaz at the spot, but describes crowds gathering there during Rama Navami.

He mentions that Mughals destroyed the fort called Ramkot and built a mosque with 3 domes on the site. He specifically mentions how 14 black stone pillars of 5 span high were taken from the Hindu structure out of which 12 were used to support the interior arcades of the mosque.

1799: Edward Thornton, head of the Statistical Department of East India house wrote that the mosque was erected by usurping 14 columns from the temple that stood in its place. He also described the platform where Rama’s cradle was being worshipped by Hindus for centuries.

1838: British official R.M. Martin referred to the forcible destruction of the temple by Babur or Aurangzeb. He also specified that mosques were built on top of temples and black stone pillars with traces of Murtis on their bases were broken off and used to erect the mosques.

1862-63: Alexander Cunningham the famous British archaeologist wrote in his Ayodhya report “In the very heart of the city stands the Janam Asthan or birthplace of Rama”. He clearly attested that the area was a sacred site worshipped as Rama’s birthplace by Hindus for centuries.

1870: Patrick Carnegy, the 1st British Commissioner of Faizabad recorded that Babur built a mosque specifically on the Janamsthan. Additionally, Aurangzeb built a mosque on the Sargadwar Mandir and either Aurangzeb or Shah Jahan built a mosque on top of the Tretaka Thakur Mandir.

1877-78: W.C Benett who prepared the Gazetteer of the province of Oudh mentions that pillars made of black stone called Kasauti by the natives from the original Ram temple used to have carvings on them & were defaced by Muslims before being used to construct the mosque.

1905: H.R. Nevill of the ICS recorded that there used to be three important Hindu shrines at Ayodhya which were desecrated by Mughals. In 1528 Babar came to Ayodhya & destroyed the Janamsthan temple in the Ramkot, to build a mosque on top with the desecrated remains.

He also says the materials from the structure, specifically columns of close-grained black stone called Kasauti by locals with broken and desecrated carvings of Hindu gods were used to construct the mosque, causing great bitterness among Hindus and Muslims.

1960: The UP District Gazetteers of Faizabad records that the Janmasthan was in Ramkot and marked the birthplace of Rama. It also specifies that Babur destroyed the temple to build a mosque utilizing the black stone kasauti pillars with desecrated Hindu bas reliefs on them.

The Gazetteer says that Aurangzeb desecrated the shrines of Ayodhya, occupying the Janamsthan by force & assaulting Hanuman Garhi. Due to his attack an enclosure was put around the mosque, Hindus were banned from access to the inner yard and had to do puja on a platform outside.

It is a testament to the infinite patience and tolerance of Hindus that they never used violence to reclaim their holy site even after Independence. Leftist historians like Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar, etc. blatantly lied to deny Hindus their rightful claim over Ram Janmasthan.

Reclamation of Ram’s Janamsthan has been very long overdue. What happened on 6 December 1992 should be viewed against this backdrop of overwhelming mountains of evidence. Hindus always had truth on their side. Justice dictates that Ram’s Ayodhya will always belong to us.

References: The Battle for Rama: Case of the Temple at Ayodhya – by Meenakshi Jain (Aryan Books International)

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread originally tweeted by Savitri Mumukshu – सावित्री मुमुक्षु (@MumukshuSavitri) on December 6, 2022.)