Amid the ongoing controversy and legal battle over the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, a former officer of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has come up with a bizarre claim on the historic Qutub Minar in Delhi.
Dharamveer Sharma, a former regional director of the ASI, said on Wednesday that Qutub Minar was built by Raja Vikramaditya and not by Qutb al-Din Aibak as history books had told us. Sharma said Vikramaditya built the structure to study the direction of the sun, adding that he has enough proof to buttress his claims.
Sharma, who has surveyed Qutub Minar, several times for the ASI, said the structure was built in the 5th century.
"There is a 25-inch tilt in the tower of the Qutb Minar. It is because it was made to observe the sun and hence, on June 21, between the shifting of the solstice, the shadow will not fall on that area for at least half an hour. This is science and archaeological fact," he was quoted as saying a by TV channel.
Sharma's claims came days after members of the right-wing groups, United Hindu Front and Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena, recited Hanuman Chalisa outside Qutub Minar as they demanded that the monument's name be changed to 'Vishnu Stambh'. They also demanded that the Hindu idols inside the monument be taken out and placed in the right manner.
Qutub Minar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mehrauli area of South Delhi. It is believed that the structure was built between 1199 and 1220 by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate.
