Hindu group claims Adina mosque built over Adinath temple, seeks legal path for installation

A Hindu organisation’s plan to install a 1.5-tonne Shiva Lingam near the 14th-century Adina Mosque in Malda has revived the mandir-masjid debate. The BJP claims the ASI-protected site stands atop the historic Adinath Temple, while police issued security warnings

Malda (WB): A Hindu organisation’s announcement that it would install a massive Shiva Lingam near the 14th-century Adina Mosque in West Bengal’s Malda district has revived the ‘mandir-masjid’ debate, with the BJP, now in power in the state, again foregrounding claims that the ASI-protected monument stands atop the remains of the historic Adinath Temple.

Members of the ‘Adinath Puratan Shiv Mandir’ committee recently performed a puja near the protected monument and announced that a 3.6-foot-high, 1.5-tonne Shiva Lingam, brought from Tarakeswar in Hooghly district, would be installed inside a nearby temple during the ongoing month of Shravan. The organisation also reiterated its long-standing claim that the original Adinath Temple once stood at the site where the mosque now exists and said it would seek legal permission to eventually install the Shiva Lingam inside the protected monument.

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“We will conduct puja and install the Shiva Lingam inside our temple on Monday. The original Adinath Temple was demolished to construct the present mosque. We will follow the law and do not want any disturbance,” Kajal Goswami, chief patron of the Adinath Puratan Shiv Mandir committee and a BJP leader, told PTI. “We want to install the Shiva Lingam inside the mosque premises, but only after following due legal procedures and if a competent court permits it. We will not indulge in any unlawful activity,” he said.

The committee claims the existing Adinath Temple, located around 100 metres from the mosque complex, is around 120 years old and that remnants of the original temple survive within the ASI-protected monument.

Goswami alleged that several Hindu and Buddhist motifs, besides a Shiva Lingam, are visible inside the mosque complex. The renewed mobilisation marks the latest chapter in a controversy that has steadily gathered political traction over the past year, with the BJP consistently raising questions over the monument’s origins and demanding a fresh examination of its historical character.

The issue first acquired political prominence last year after Baharampur MP and former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan visited the monument and shared photographs from the site on social media. The West Bengal BJP reacted by asserting that the structure was not a mosque but the historic Adinath Temple.

The controversy subsequently reached Parliament when BJP Rajya Sabha MP and state president Samik Bhattacharya alleged that the mosque had been built using materials from pre-existing Hindu and Buddhist structures. Referring to local traditions and historical accounts, he claimed the site had originally housed the Adinath Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu.

Earlier this year, a public interest litigation was filed before the Calcutta High Court alleging that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had wrongly identified the protected monument as the Adina Mosque despite the alleged presence of Hindu deities and iconography within the structure.

A senior BJP leader said public sentiment surrounding the site remained strong. “Like the Ram Mandir, this temple, too, was reportedly demolished to build a mosque. The religious sentiments attached to the site cannot be ignored, and the historical truth must emerge,” he said.

The ASI, however, officially recognises the monument as the Adina Mosque, constructed in 1373 CE by Sultan Sikandar Shah, son of Ilyas Shah, and has declared it a Monument of National Importance under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

Located in Pandua, around 16 km north of Malda town, the Adina Mosque is regarded as one of the finest surviving examples of 14th-century Indo-Islamic architecture. The complex, which has 260 stone pillars and 387 domed bays, was once considered the largest mosque in the Indian subcontinent.

Though it suffered extensive damaged due to earthquakes and has been abandoned since the 19th century, the monument remains one of West Bengal’s most significant medieval archaeological sites.

One of the enduring points of debate surrounding the monument has been the presence of carved Hindu imagery on some basalt walls and doorways. Motifs identified as Shiva and Ganesh, along with lotus and foliage patterns associated with Hindu and Buddhist traditions, are visible in parts of the structure.

Architectural historians have generally attributed these carvings to the reuse of materials from earlier structures — a practice not uncommon in medieval construction — while scholars have also described the monument as reflecting a synthesis of Islamic and indigenous architectural traditions.

The precise origins of the reused materials, however, continue to be debated by historians as well as local groups. Amid the renewed mobilisation, the district administration has tightened security around the monument.

While the Hindu organisation has maintained that this year’s rituals will remain confined to the nearby temple and that any future claim over the monument would be pursued only through judicial intervention, the latest developments have once again placed the centuries-old Adina Mosque at the centre of a contentious debate involving archaeology, history, faith and politics.

With the BJP now governing West Bengal, the dispute is expected to remain politically significant as competing narratives over history and heritage continue to shape public discourse. The Malda district police have also issued a public advisory after reports surfaced on social media regarding proposed religious programmes at the site.

The advisory reminded people that the monument is protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, and warned that any attempt to organise unauthorised religious activities or alter the protected structure would invite strict legal action.