Jain monks, VHP leaders visit Ajmer monument; claim temple existed there

Jaipur: A group of Jain monks accompanied by VHP leaders on Tuesday went to the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra in Ajmer, an ASI-protected mosque, and claimed the monument was earlier a Sanskrit school and a Jain temple existed there before the school.

The monks led by Sunil Sagar Maharaj reached the monument from Fawara Circle via Dargah Bazaar.

Deputy Mayor of Ajmer Municipal Corporation Neeraj Jain said that Jain monks were of the view that there was a Jain temple before a Sanskrit school there.

"We have in the past demanded that the monument should be redeveloped and its past glory restored. There are idols kept in a store room in the monument," the deputy mayor said.

According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) website, the monument is a mosque built by Qutub-ud-Din-Aibak, first Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, in AD 1199, and is contemporary to the other one built at Qutub Minar complex in Delhi known as Quwal-ul-Islam mosque (power of Islam).

A large number of sculptures of temples are lying in the verandah of the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra complex, which shows the existence of a Hindu temple in its vicinity during 11th-12th century AD, the website said.

The mosque, built from the dismantled remains of temples, is known as Adhai din ka Jhonpra possibly from the fact that a fair used to be held here for two-and-a-half days, it said.