The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which has been set up to oversee the construction of the grand Ram temple in Ayodhya, tweeted that several broken statues of Hindu gods and goddesses have been found at the temple site where levelling operations are underway.
"During the excavation, a 5-ft Shivling, pillars and broken idols of have also been discovered," the tweet said.
For decades, the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid area in Ayodhya has been a disputed land. Last year, a Supreme Court verdict handed over the land to Hindu parties and allowed for the construction of a temple for Lord Ram at Ram Janmasthan.
These findings are described as an important development at the once-disputed site. Years ago, the Archaeological Survey of India said it had found the remains of an ancient temple beneath the site where the now-demolished Babri Masjid once stood.
Soon after the carvings were found many trolled the Historians for their beliefs that Ayodhya is not the birthplace of Lord Ram. Historians like Romila Thapar, D.N Jha said it was impossible to prove that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya.
In an interview to The Wire, historian Dwijendra Narayan Jha had said, "As I have said in my earlier interviews to the media, I see it as a battle between faith and rationality. For it is impossible to prove that Ram was born within the limits of 2.77 acres of the disputed land in Ayodhya. I don’t see any logic in this faith. And as a professional historian I think history cannot be written on the basis of faith; whatever is written or spoken about on its basis is only fantasy."
While historian Romila Thapar had claimed there was a mosque built almost 500 years ago on the disputed site. Ignoring the Hindu mythological accounts, Thapar had written an article for The Hindu about a 500-year-ago old mosque, which she said was a part of our cultural heritage and was destroyed by a mob after being instigated by political leaders. She had further said the new temple will have its sanctum — the presumed birthplace of Lord Ram — in the area of the debris of the mosque.
Coming to the recent findings, the excavation includes a five-foot Shivalinga, seven pillars of black touchstone, six pillars of red sandstone, structures of flowers and broken idols of deities. These findings further testify the presence of Hindu temples beneath the overground structures, which was a bone of contention for decades and was later resolved by the Supreme Court. The claims of these historians have fallen flat and have become a target for trolls.
Taking to Twitter, one user said, "Remember the names. Romila Thapar, D.N Jha, Irfan Habib. And let future generations know in clear terms that they were not just frauds but bigots who had set out to dismiss and erase Hindu identity. Remember the sham that secularism in this country is and how sinister it is."
Another user said, "KK Muhammad and team were discredited and prevented from discovering this truth. Left historians like Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Bipin Chandra, S Gopal RS Sharma, DN Jha, Suraj Ben, Akthar Ali should be remembered as charlatans and fraud, and their work be omitted from our books."
In 2016, a former archaeologist had alleged that Left historians like Irfan Habib and Romila Thapar had played an important role in “thwarting an amicable settlement to the Babri Masjid issue”.
In an article in Firstpost, Muhammed further claimed historians like Romila Thapar, Bipin Chandra, and S Gopal had argued Ayodhya was Buddhist-Jain centre and that there was no evidence of the dismantling of the temple before 19th century.
The Supreme Court, in November last year, in a historic decision, accepted the Hindu claim and allowed for the construction of Ram Mandir at the Ram Janmabhoomi site, putting an end to almost a century-long dispute. The five-judge bench had unanimously come to the decision after weighing the arguments presented by all sides for 40 days.
