Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai seeks report as row brews over Bidar dargah

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said he will seek a report on claims that the Peer Pasha Dargah in Bidar is standing upon the Anubhava Mantapa, a 12th century Parliament-like structure believed to have been founded by social reformer Basavanna.

“I’ll get a report on this. These things need documents, not statements. We will examine documents,” Bommai said, making it the first official comment on the latest dispute involving a Muslim shrine.

Revenue Minister R Ashoka said some pontiffs had claimed to have found traces of the Anubhava Mantapa at the dargah located in Basavakalyan in Bidar district.

The brewing row over the Anubhava Mantapa comes even as the BJP government is spending Rs 612 crore on building a new structure to recreate what Basavanna, the founder of the Lingayat faith, had established some 900 years ago.

Speaking to reporters during his ‘grama vastavya’ (village stay) at Vadagaon in Bidar, Ashoka said: “Several Muslim rulers in the past destroyed Hindu temples to build mosques. But we will not do it. We will go by law. If the seers provide us with documentary evidence, the government will take legal steps.”

Meanwhile, in Belagavi, Chandrashekhara Shivacharya Swamy of the Hukkeri Hiremath claimed that the Peer Pasha Dargah, also known as the Peer Pasha Bungalow, was indeed the original Anubhava Mantapa. “This should come back to the Hindus,” the pontiff said.

“The government should immediately intervene and hold talks with the Muslims so that the Anubhava Mantapa space is cordially handed over to the Hindus,” he said.

All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha leader Pradeep Kankanavadi even threatened to launch an agitation if the government fails to act before June 12.

“The Anubhava Mantapa is hailed as the world’s first parliament. It’s unfortunate that the land of the Sharanas came under the control of the Nizams. The government should take over the Peer Pasha Bungalow,” he said.