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What is ‘Vyasji ka Tehkhana’, the Gyanvapi complex part where Varanasi court allowed pooja?
The Varanasi district court granted the family of a priest the right to worship Hindu deities in the Gyanvapi mosque cellar, known as Vyasji ka Tehkhana.
A Varanasi court on Wednesday allowed to perform pooja in the cellar on the southern side, also known as the ‘Vyasji Ka Tehkhana’, in the Gyanvapi mosque complex. The court has asked the district administration to make the necessary arrangements for pooja of the idols performed by the plaintiff and a pujari, or priest, nominated by Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust in the next seven days.
The order was given by district court judge A K Vishvesh.
"Hindu side allowed to offer prayers at 'Vyas Ka Tekhana'. The District Administration will have to make arrangements within 7 days," advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side, said.
The court's decision came in response to a suit filed by Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas against the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee (AIMC), which manages the mosque.
What is Vyasji ka Tehkhana?
The mosque has four 'tehkhanas' (cellars) in the basement out of which one is still in possession of the Vyas family who used to live here.
Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas filed a lawsuit against Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages the mosque, urging the court to appoint the district magistrate as the receiver of the cellar.
According to the petition, priest Somnath Vyas used to perform prayers there till 1993 when the cellar was closed by the authorities.
Vyas had petitioned that, as a maternal grandson of Somnath Vyas, he be allowed to enter the tehkhana and resume pooja.
He alleged that the people of the mosque committee keep visiting the cellar and they may take it over, a charge dismissed by the AIMC's counsel Akhlaque Ahmad as baseless.
Hindu petitioners have also filed several other cases related to the Gyanvapi mosque, seeking prayer rights. A report by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) – ordered by the court in a related petition – says that a large Hindu temple existed before the construction of the Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi. The extensive report of ASI cited its in-depth study of the existing structures, and alluded to features and artefacts recovered from the site to conclude that “there existed a large Hindu temple prior to the construction of the existing structure” in the 17th century.
(With inputs from Sudhir Kumar in Varanasi)
