In Ayodhya, a temple in pieces waits to be built on long-disputed holy site

A mosque stood on the site for almost five centuries until it was demolished by Hindu zealots in 1992, sparking riots and decades of litigation

Now, with Saturday’s Supreme Court ruling, the small mountain of bricks and stones amassed in the northern Indian city can finally be put to use

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Hindu women pray to a pile of bricks which are expected to be used in the construction of a new temple in Ayodhya. Photo: AP

Published: 6:18pm, 12 Nov 2019Updated: 11:01pm, 12 Nov 2019

Huge slabs of pink Rajasthan stone, as well as carved pillars and bricks from across India are already waiting to form a Hindu temple to be built on the site of a demolished mosque at the centre of decades of deadly turbulence.

Enough stone to build a small mountain was waiting at a complex in the holy city of Ayodhya years before the country’s Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that the site should be handed over to Hindus to build a new temple.

A mosque stood on the site for almost five centuries until it was demolished by Hindu zealots in 1992, sparking riots across the country in which 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, died.

Dozens of stonemasons and artisans have been chipping away at the blocks since an appeal for contributions toward a “grand Hindu temple” in Ayodhya was launched in 1990, without knowing when, or whether, the building would be erected. Cash donations and bricks were sent from around the world.

The workers went back to their hometowns and villages just before Saturday’s long-awaited verdict, which said Muslims would get their own land on a new site to build a mosque.

Residents of Ayodhya celebrate Saturday’s Supreme Court ruling on the temple site. Photo: DPA

After decades of litigation and religious strife, Hindus rejoiced at the ruling. Activists, priests and pilgrims have since thronged the Nyas Karyashaala workshop, a few kilometres from the contested site where Hindus believe the god Rama was born.