Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s6.2

c8.s6.2

The Hindus claim the place as a Hindu building which had been appropriated by the Muhammadans, but this is not quite correct. The building, as it now stands, is purely Muhammadan, but, as already mentioned, it has in great part been built, as all the earlier mosques were, of pilfered material. Judging by the few columns that now remain, the whole of the pillars of the mosque were probably taken from some Hindu temple or temples; and, where the courtyard wall is broken down in places, carved temple stones and broken images may be seen built into the interior. The beautiful *miḥrābs*, with their Persian inscriptions above them, are purely Musalmān work, though carried out in Hindu spirit, and, probably, by Hindu workmen. They remind one much of the designs of temple doorways. A Hindu temple possibly once existed here, and may have occupied the site on which the mosque now stands—nothing more probable—but the Hindus have now not the shadow of a claim to the place.