The site is the former location of the
Babri Masjid, which was built in the 16th century. The mosque was
attacked and demolished in 1992.
Medieval In 1528, a commander of the
Mughal Empire,
Mir Baqi, constructed the
Babri Masjid mosque, under the order of Babur. The site chosen for the mosque is identified by many Hindus as
Ram Janmabhoomi, the mythical birthplace of Rama. The earliest record of the mosque may be traced back to 1767, in the
Latin book
Descriptio Indiae, authored by the
Jesuit missionary Joseph Tiefenthaler. According to him, the local population believed that the mosque was constructed by destroying the Ramkot temple, believed to be the fortress of Rama in Ayodhya, and the Bedi, where the birthplace of Rama is situated.
Modern Disputed location The first instance of religious violence was documented in 1853. In December 1858, the British administration prohibited Hindus from conducting
puja (rituals) at the contested site. A platform was created for conducting rituals outside the mosque.
Murtis () of
Rama and
Sita were installed inside the Babri Masjid on the night of 22–23 December 1949, after which devotees began visiting the site. By 1950, the state took control of the mosque under Section 145 CrPC and allowed Hindus, not Muslims, to perform their worship at the site. In the 1980s, the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), belonging to the
Hindu nationalist family,
Sangh Parivar, launched a new movement to reclaim the site for Hindus and to erect a temple dedicated to the infant Rama (
Ram Lalla) at this spot. The VHP began to collect funds and bricks with "
Jai Shri Ram" written on them. Later,
the government under Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi gave the VHP permission for () to proceed, with the then
Home Minister,
Buta Singh, formally conveying the permission to the VHP leader,
Ashok Singhal. Initially, the
Government of India and the
Government of Uttar Pradesh had agreed that the s would be conducted outside of the disputed site. However, on 9 November 1989, a group of VHP leaders and Sadhus laid the foundation stone by digging a pit adjacent to the disputed land. The () of the
sanctum sanctorum was constructed there. The VHP then laid the foundations of a temple on the land adjacent to the disputed mosque.
Demolition of the Babri Masjid On 6 December 1992, the VHP and the
Bharatiya Janata Party organised a rally at the site involving 150,000 volunteers, known as karsevaks. The rally turned violent, the crowd overwhelmed the security forces and
tore down the mosque. The demolition of the mosque resulted in several months of
inter-communal violence between India's Hindu and Muslim communities, causing the
death of an estimated 2,000 people in Bombay (now
Mumbai) as a direct consequence, and triggering riots all over the
Indian subcontinent. A day after the demolition of the mosque, on 7 December 1992,
The New York Times reported that over 30 Hindu temples across
Pakistan were attacked, some set on fire, and one was demolished. Hindu temples in
Bangladesh were also attacked.
ASI excavations Reports on two
archaeological excavations in 1978 and 2003 conducted by the ASI claimed to have found evidence indicating that a temple existed on the site. The claims were
heavily disputed by critics as contradictory and unreliable. Archaeologist
K. K. Muhammed maintained that remains of a Hindu temple were found in 1978, and accused several historians of averting a settlement for the dispute.
Court rulings Over the years, various title and legal disputes took place, such as the passage of the Acquisition of Certain Areas at Ayodhya Act in 1993. In 2010, the Allahabad High Court ruled that the of disputed land be divided into three parts, one going to the
Ram Lalla or Infant Rama, represented by the
Hindu Mahasabha for the construction of the Ram temple, one going to the Muslim
Sunni Waqf Board, and one going to Hindu religious denomination
Nirmohi Akhara. All three parties involved appealed against the division of disputed land to the Supreme Court. In the
Supreme Court's verdict on the Ayodhya dispute in 2019, it was decided that the disputed land would be handed over to a trust formed by the
Government of India for the construction of a Ram temple. Another salient aspect in the apex court's judgement is on the question on the claim of Hindus that disputed structure as the birthplace of Rama. The court observed that the Hindu claim is 'undisputed' and opined that there is clear evidence that Hindus believed that site to be Rama's birthplace.
Terror attack On 5 July 2005, five
Lashkar-e-Taiba's terrorists attacked the makeshift Ram temple at the site of destroyed
Babri Masjid in
Ayodhya,
India. All five were shot dead in the ensuing gunfight with the
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), while one
civilian died in the
grenade attack that the attackers launched in order to breach the cordoned wall. The CRPF suffered three casualties, two of whom were seriously injured with multiple gunshot wounds.
Trust formation and start of construction The trust was eventually formed under the name of the
Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra. On 5 February 2020, it was announced in the
Parliament of India that
the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accepted a plan to construct the temple. Two days later, on 7 February, of land was allocated for a new
mosque to be built away from Ayodhya city in
Dhannipur village. == Architecture ==