New Delhi, Oct. 2: The Allahabad High Court in its majority judgment in the Ayodhya case relied upon a plethora of historical and religious texts, including the British gazetteers to establish the right of Hindus on the core portion of the disputed land on which the demolished structure stood, but found the Archaeological Survey of India report of little help.
In the opinion of the majority judges — Justices S.U. Khan and Sudhir Agrawal — the texts did not form hard evidence but were the basis for drawing a conclusion about the “belief” of Hindus that the birthplace of Lord Rama was at the place where the “central dome” of the demolished structure exists.
The court said lawyers for the Hindus produced the books of history and public records to establish that the ancient temple built by Maharaja Vikramaditya at the birthplace of Lord Rama, was destroyed partly by Mir Baqi, a commander of Babar and a mosque was built at its place.
“An extract from 1928 Faizabad gazetteer has been quoted wherein it was mentioned that in 1528 Babar came to Ayodhya and destroyed the ancient temple and on its site built a mosque,” Justice Khan recorded in his verdict, which was concurred by Justice Agrawal.
The court also took into account A.S. Beveridge’s English translation of Babar Nama published in 1889 in order to trace the history of Babri Majid, but dismissed it on the ground that there were doubts about the “authenticity” of its copies.
The other crucial document considered was Carnergy’s historical sketch on the Janamsthan and other temples, which quoted “it is locally affirmed that at the Mohamedan conquest there were three important Hindu shrines”.