It’s up to the judge to decide what happens.”Taj Mahal gets a facelift – and slaps on a mudpack Read moreClaims that the Taj Mahal is a Hindu temple have surfaced periodically, either from lone Hindu mavericks, revisionists, or extremist Hindu groups ever since PN Oak, an Indian writer, published his 1989 book Taj Mahal: the True Story, in which he claimed it was built before Muslim invaders came to India. Proponents of this theory resent that its glory belongs to India’s Muslim heritage and argue that since some of the Mughal invaders destroyed Hindu temples or converted them into mosques, it follows that the Taj Mahal must have originally been a Hindu structure. Hari Shankar Jain, one of the lawyers who took the case to the Agra court, had said he was looking forward to winning the case and performing Hindu prayers at the Taj Mahal. Asked if he would disinter the body of Mumtaz Mahal, the Mughal empress buried inside, he replied: “Of course not because there is no body inside. It’s built on a Hindu temple so there is no question of anyone being buried in it.”

Source: The Guardian August 30, 2017 10:07 UTC