It was one of the worst instances of brutality unmatched in the recorded history of this country that began with this ‘Shahi Firmaan’ issued by Babar: “By the order of the Shahenshah-e-Hind, Malikul Jahan, Badshah Babur and Hazrat Jalalshah, permission is hereby granted to destroy Rama’s birthplace in Ayodhya and replace it with a mosque built with the recovered material. You are hereby ordered to ensure that no Hindu from other parts of Hindusthan be allowed into Ayodhya. If any Hindu should find himself in Ayodhya and you have cause to doubt his intentions then you will be duty bound to capture and execute such Hindus”.
When the Mughal invader Babar captured throne of Delhi, Sri Ramajanma Bhumi was in possession of a highly realised Mahatma Syamanandaji Maharaja of Ayodhya. As his fame pervaded all around, one Khwaja Kajal Abbas Musa visited him in Ayodhya, became his disciple, learned Yoga and other Adhyatmika pursuits. In due course of time, he stood to be counted as one of his accomplished disciples. Then arrived a Muslim Fakir Jalalshah, accepted his discipleship and began learning Yoga etc. Jalalashah was a fanatic Islamist and his only dream was to Islamise entire nation. He conceived the nefarious idea of destroying sacred Mandir in cahoots with Khwaja to facilitate and accelerate Islam being resolutely established all over. Gradually both began devising elaborate plans to execute their satanic mission.
Khwaja and the Fakir managed to win trust of Babar with persistent efforts. As a first measure to execute the plan, they began burying deceased Muslims in the vicinity of Mandir so as to grab the land on pretext of being a Muslim graveyard. Their next sinister move was to incite Mir Baqi Khan, Babar’s army chief to join the conspiracy and associated Babar too, in due course. It was almost at this stage that Maharaj sensed the conspiracy, sunk into extreme dejection and regretted his decision to accept them as his disciples. As usual, as before several times characteristically with Hindus, it was too late as the beast had already escaped. Syamanandaji immersed Murtis into Sarayu river despondently and proceeded to Himalaya-s to continue with his Adhyatmika pursuits. Other items of the Mandir were removed by pujaris and they stood guard at the entrance in their last desperate bid to protect the shrine. As ordered by Jalalashah, all those pujaris were beheaded without delay. Bhiti King Mahtab Singh on his pilgrimage to Badri Narayana Dham, had landed at Ayodhya and learned about developments, decided to cancel his onward journey to fight out Babar’s army of 4.5 lakh fighters with his smaller army of 1.75 lakh soldiers. They were all determined to protect the shrine from demolition by marauders till the last moment of their existence. Fierce fighting continued for 70 days only to conclude in decimation of defenders including the King himself. As the soil of Ayodhya turned red with blood of martyrs, Mir Baqi ordered the Mandira to be razed through canon fire from all four directions as recorded by historian Cunningham. Babri Masjid that was raised, used blood of Hindus instead of water for preparing concrete-mix as confirmed by another historian Hamilton in Barabanki Gazetteer.
Six miles away from Ayodhya in a village Sanethu, one Pt. Devideen Pandey mobilised some 90,000 Suryavamshi Kshatriya warriors to fight out Muslim Ayodhya-grabbers including people from far away villages. They all raided Mughal intruders who had seized Ayodhya and fierce fighting ensued for next five days. When Devideen Pandey encountered Mir Baqi on sixth day, he was hit on his head with a brick surreptitiously by Mir’s bodyguard. Instantly Devideen Pandey wrapped his head with his turban and beheaded the attacker. However, he was martyred when Mir Baqi shot him with his gun from a vantage point like a coward. Ayodhya was again reddened with blood of 90,000 Hindus. Fifteen days after, Hansavar King Ranvijay Singh attacked Mir Baqi’s raiders with 25,000 soldiers, battled for 10 days only to sacrifice their lives and rubricate Ayodhya’s soil once again. After the King was martyred, his Rani Jayraj Kumari picked up the gauntlet to liberate Ayodhya leading a combat force of 3,000 women soldiers. She continued her guerrilla warfare till Humanyu was installed as their head. Swami Mahesvarananda, Rani’s Guru too stepped in, assisted her by arranging more soldiers devoted to Sri Rama. Also he raised an army of 24,000 ascetics, attacked Ayodhya ten times during Humanyu’s tenure along with the Rani’s army. It was in tenth attack that Mughal intruders suffered heavy losses and Ayodhya was captured by the Rani. However, after a month or so, Humanyu’s forces attacked again and the fierce fight concluded in their being killed as well as Ayodhya recaptured by Mughals. Sacred Ayodhya was once again rubricated with blood of 24,000 Hindu-warriors and 3,000 women soldiers. Now the command was taken over by Swami Balaramacari who organised a strong force of youth and ascetics, raided Ayodhya twenty times out of which 15 times successfully. These successes were indeed pyrrhic victories as Humanyu used to gear up, send another force to raid Ayodhya to capture again. Hindu-s continued sacrificing their blood in this crusade like oblations into sacred fire of Yajna.
By now Akbar had taken over Mughal Kingdom who observed gradual weakening of his Mughal army owing to frequent raids by and fierce battles with Hindu-warriors. Advised by his ministers Birbal and Todarmal, Akbar raised a small make-shift Mandira on a dais to pacify Hindus. Heavy losses inflicted on Mughals and rising anger among Hindus weighed heavily on Akbar’s mind, truce prevailed temporarily and there was no bloodshed. The semblance of peace continued during entire tenure of Shahjahan till he was forced to abdicate throne in favour of his rabidly fanatical son Aurangzeb who vowed to slaughter all kafirs, ran at least ten Mandir-demolition campaigns in Ayodhya and destroyed Murtis of all sacred prominent Mandirs. Sri Vaisnavadasa, disciple of Samartha Guru Sri Ramdasa invaded Ayodhya 30 times to liberate it from Mughals leading a force of Suryavamsi Kshatriyas including Thakur Gajaraja Singh, Kunvara Gopala Singh and Jagdamba Singh. Though they all were very well conscious of the terse reality that they stood nowhere in might before Mughals yet they fought fiercely till being martyred. Even today, Suryavamsi Kshatriyas of Ayodhya do not turban their heads, do not use shoes and umbrella in consonance with the vow their ancestors had undertaken till liberation of the Mandir.
In 1640, Aurangzeb sent a mighty army led by Jabaz Khan to destroy the Mandir with finality. They were confronted by massive number of Hindus and a battery of ascetics raised earlier by Sri Vaishnava Dasa. Fierce fight broke out that continued for seven days at Urvasi Kunda and Mughals had to retreat as they could not withstand the onslaught. Aurangzeb was extremely angry at the abject defeat and deputed another Mughal Sayyed Hasan Ali with a contingent of 50,000 soldiers armed with canons with a standing commandment not to return unsuccessful. That was in 1680 when Baba Vaishnava Dasa sent a letter to Guru Govinda Singh soliciting assistance to defeat Mughal invaders. The Guru responded immediately by embarking on a journey to Ayodhya leading a mighty army to liberate the sacred shrine. He camped at Brahma-Kunda to carry out the attack. Baba Dasa and the Guru together led their warriors into a fierce battle with the Mughal army, decisively defeated them and killed Hasan Ali. It was a stunning defeat of Aurangzeb at hands of Hindu warriors that dazed Mughals so much so that they could not even think of attacking Ayodhya for the next four years. In 1664, Aurangzeb again attacked Ayodhya that witnessed brutal slaughter of some 10,000 Hindus mostly innocent natives. The shrine had a well known as Kandarpa-Kupa into which all dead bodies were dumped and boundary wall elevated to hide the beastly pogrom from public gaze. It still exists on the eastern side known as ‘Ganj Shahida’. Mughals dug up the dais and it remained there as a pit for a long time. During the reign of Nawab Sahadat Ali in 1763, Amethi King Gurudatt Singh and Piparpur King Rajkumar Singh attacked Babri structure five times and in every battle, more Hindus were killed than Muslims. According to Col. Hunt in Lucknow Gazetteer, Nawab was so much fed up of frequent Hindu attacks that he allowed Hindus to recite Bhajans concurrently with Namaz yet he did not surrender the land. During Nasiruddin Haidar’s years, King of Makarahi led three attacks on Ayodhya to re-possess Janmabhumi that caused considerable loss of lives. On the eighth day of third attack, when Hindu-warriors suffered reverses and heavy loss of lives, they were joined by an army of ascetic-warriors who trounced Mughals and captured the shrine. However, the hard-earned victory turned out to be pyrrhic as they were soon attacked by Mughals and thousands of Hindus were killed yet again. Next raid by Hindu-warriors during the reign of Nawab Wazid Ali Shah led to fierce bloodshed in Ayodhya as death-dance continued for two days and nights, shrine land was recovered from Mughals, destroyed their graves and Masjids yet did not harm Muslim women and children. Mughals were thrown out of Ayodhya and historian Cunningham declared it the worst Hindu-Muslim battle ever in Ayodhya. Hindus realised their dream again, dais was re-constructed and a small Mandira raised again. After some period, there was another raid and Hindus again lost the shrine. In 1857, one Baba Ramcharan Dasa did an effort alongwith Maulavi Amir Ali to renovate the shrine but soon they were hanged to death by British-occupiers from a tamarind tree. Later the tree too, was hacked to prevent it from becoming a rallying point for crusaders. Last serious attempt was rendered on October 30, 1990 when Kar Sevaks hoisted saffron flag atop disputed structure. On November 2, 1990 UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered firing at Kar Sevakas in which several lives were lost. On December 6, 1991 disputed structure was demolished finally albeit Mandir is yet to be raised with everybody awaiting adjudication by the Supreme Court.
Ironically, Reginald Dyer-incarnate Mulayam Singh Yadav is still alive and there has been no Udham Singh for him. That summarises, why the mandir could not be raised even 70 years after installation of democracy in the country and the Hindu-majority are forced to beg before secular judiciary for permission to construct the shrine in absence of Hindu-unity.
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