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Karnataka CM Bommai has assured us of ASI survey of Peer Pasha Bangla dargah: Lingayat seers
In their memorandum to chief Karnataka minister Basavaraj Bommai, the Lingayat seers said that it has come to their knowledge from local sources and documents that ‘Peer Pasha Bangla’, a dargah or a mausoleum of a Muslim saint, is the original ‘Anubhava Mantapa’.
A group of Veeerashaiva-Lingayat seers in Karnataka said on Monday that chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has assured them that he will consider their request for a survey of the ancient ’Peer Pasha Bangla Dargah’ in Basavakalyans in Bidar district by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI).
In a letter to the chief minister, the seers claimed that it was the original ‘Anubhava Mantapa’, the sacred seat of the founder of the Lingayat sect and 12th-century social reformer Basaveshwara.
“The first parliament of the world, Anubhava Mantapa, now happens to be the Peer Pasha Bangla (Bungalow), which requires immediate protection and a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India,” the seers said in a joint statement.
The seers, led by Sharanu Salagar, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Basavakalyana, and Pradeep Kankanvadi, president of Veerashaiva-Lingayat Sanghatana Vedike, called on Bommai at his residence. In their memorandum, the seers said that it has come to their knowledge from local sources and documents that ‘Peer Pasha Bangla’, a dargah or a mausoleum of a Muslim saint, is the original ‘Anubhava Mantapa’.
Rajeshwara Shivacharya Swami, one of the seers who was part of the delegation, said that the chief minister assured them that the government would look into the matter. “We have submitted the documents about the original Anubhava Mantappa to the Chief Minister. He has assured us that he will study them, and ask the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the state archaeological department to look into the matter. He also assured us that we will be informed of the findings at the earliest,” he said.
The seers demanded that the state should propose the Centre to release ₹ 500 crore for the ‘Anubhava Mantapa’ corridor under which the sites related to Basavanna should be identified and preserved.
The seers further said the Anubhava Mantapa should be developed as a major Lingayat study centre in Basavakalyana. According to Girimalleshwara Swamiji of Tapovana Matha in Shahpur Taluk in Yadgir district, Bommai assured the seers that all the documents would be examined and a meeting with the officials convened in this regard.
The demand comes as the government is facing a backlash over the editing of lessons on Basavanna -- social reformer and founder of the Lingayat faith. Leaders of the Lingayat community in Karnataka had threatened state-wide protests “if the misinformation on Basavanna is not removed from the textbooks”.
The delegation meeting also comes in the backdrop of several Hindu organisations claiming Muslim places of worship to be ancient Hindu temples over the past two months.
On Saturday, over 200 members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal were stopped from entering the Jama Masjid in Srirangapatna by Mandya police on Saturday after they gathered at the Kirangur junction in the historic Karnataka town for their proposed march to the mosque.
Tension engulfed Srirangapatna, the former capital of 18th-century ruler Tipu Sultan, where right-wing groups declared their intention to chant Hanuman Chalisa outside the mosque on Saturday. The Hindutva outfits launched a ‘Srirangapatna Chalo’ campaign, claiming the mosque stands on the ruins of a Hanuman temple.
On May 29, BJP MLA Abhay Patil claimed that the Shahi Masjid in Belagavi was originally a Hindu temple and urged the district administration to survey in this regard. Patil claimed that there are pillars in the mosque like the ones found in temples.
In another incident, a month after a temple-like structure was found during the renovation of Juma Masjid mosque at Malali village near Mangaluru, the VHP got priests from Kerala to conduct the ‘Tambula Prashne’ ritual, which they believe to have revealed ‘the presence of a temple in the structure.’
(With inputs from PTI)
