I had written about https://ramanisblog.in/2013/07/22/temples-converted-into-mosques-a-pointer/How Humayun’s Tomb was a Vishnu Temple, Tajmahal, a Shiva Temple,Ajmer dargah was Temple…list goes on.
Now in Pune efforts are being made to construct a test room for A muslim Graveyard over the remains of a Twin temple, Punyeswar and Narayaneswar. Pune is named after Punyeswar.
Reports say that the evidence about the existence of the temple is being destroyed to facilitate the building of rest room. And there exists Dargah which is over 700 years old. The argument is that an old landmark, the Dargah is to be preserved.
The temple is over 1000 year old. Which is an older landmark? And Dargah is not permitted in Islam. Detailed story.
The controversy over the remains of a Hindu temple on the premises of the Chhota Shaikhsallah Dargah premises erupted again after historian Pandurang Balkawde objected to the construction work on the historic dargah’s premises, reports the newspaper DNA.
The Hajrat Khwaja Shaikh Sallahuddin Algari Nizami Chisti Rahmatullah Alahi (Chhota Shaikh Sallah Dargah) is in the process of constructing a waiting room for the kin of the deceased at the graveyard on its premises. The dargah premises is situated at 1279 Kasba Peth near Kumbhar Wada, Dengale bridge.
Balkawde said that being a member of Samajik Ekata Va Sanskruti Raksha Samiti, he had made a representation to the state home department. He also submitted memoranda to the city police and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in 2008.
“The place where the dargah is situated used to house a temple almost 1,000 years ago. The Gazette of Pune mentions this temple as Punyeshwar Mandir,” he added. https://www-indiatvnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.indiatvnews.com/amp/news/india/historian-claims-hindu-temple-remains-beneath-pune-dargah-3844.html?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16468832425600&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiatvnews.com%2Fnews%2Findia%2Fhistorian-claims-hindu-temple-remains-beneath-pune-dargah-3844.html
Mr. Pandurang Balkawade, a senior historian has demanded that the construction should be stopped and the structure should be declared as a ‘preserved vaastu’. The construction was undertaken for building rooms in the durgah. The digging has been going on for a month when ruins of the temple were found. The durgah is 700 years old. In the year 1294, Alluddin Khilji attacked Raja Ramdev Rai and took over the whole area. Some ‘Fakirs’ came to Pune at that time and they demolished the ‘Narayaneshwar and Punyeshwar’ temples to build durgahs, said Mr. Balkawade presenting various proofs for the same. The Muslims inside the durgah did not allow taking pictures of the temple and started saying that it was not a temple but a tomb. They claimed that there were tombs and it was a graveyard. The dead bodies used to be buried there by filling soil. There were stables earlier. When the Panshet dam broke and there were floods in the city, everything flowed away and only those stones are remaining now, said Ibrahim Attar, a member of Kasba Peth Muslim community. https://www.hindujagruti.org/news/9781.html
Two of the oldest structures in Pune, which have endured various regimes, are the two dargahs including the Thorla or senior, which lies opposite the Shaniwar wada and the Dhakta or Junior in Kumbharwada.
A Marathi manuscript titled Pune peth kaifiyat, found in an archive in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library in Chennai, tells the peculiar tale of the dargahs. The manuscript begins with the story of rishi Purna, who meditated in this region. Arguably, the city was named after him. The kaifiyat describes the building of the temples of Puneshwar and Narayaneshwar on the Mutha river bank in the period of the Yadava rule from 9th to 13th centuries.
At this time, Delhi was captured by Qutbuddin Aibak and soon after, Islam began to spread to the Deccan. The kaifiyat says that two wandering missionaries including Sheikh Salahuddin awaliya, who ruled the city of Basra in Iraq and had abandoned his throne, along with Sheikh Ismauddin awaliya, travelled to India. They came to Pune with 12 followers and camped at the garden of a temple. When Sheikh Ismauddin’s followers asked him for food, the senior Sheikh told them to look around and eat what they found. The followers found two bullocks that belonged to a gardener, and these, they slaughtered for food. The gardener searched for the bullocks because he needed them to draw water from the well. Unable to find them and upon seeing the foreign visitors, he suspected the worst and asked them the whereabouts of the animals.https://punemirror-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/punemirror.com/amp/entertainment/unwind/the-tale-of-two-dargahs/cid5092378.htm?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16468858996872&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fpunemirror.com%2Fentertainment%2Funwind%2Fthe-tale-of-two-dargahs%2Fcid5092378.htm
Punyeshwar Mahadev Mandir was a Shiva temple along the bank of the river Mutha in Pune. Along with Puneshwar there existed another temple named Narayaneshwar. In the late thirteenth century Puneshwar temple was pulled down[2] and converted into a dargah now called Dhakta (Younger) Sheikh Salla Dargah,which stands in its place to this day. The Narayaneshwar was also converted into the Senior Sheikh Salla dargah around the same time. In 2006, a wall along the river collapsed leading to finding of old artefacts of the Puneshwar temple under the dargah.
The temple remains one of the earliest named temples, after Pataleshwar in the city of Pune, although it does not exist in its original form now.
The city of Pune is named after Puneshwar. Wikipedia
Narayaneshwar Mahadev Mandir[1] and Puneshwar were two temples in Pune that were demolished[2] under the rule of the Delhi sultanate led by Nizamuddin and other religious preachers] The two preachers were later buried there. The dargah built over the Narayaneshwar Temple] is now the ‘Thorla (Senior) Sheikh Salla dargah’ and is located on the bank of the Mutha river, not far from the Shaniwar Wada.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayaneshwar
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