ASI Taj Mahal Room Photos: The Archaeological Survey of India has released the photos of Taj Mahal's underground rooms to clear the air over the controversy surrounding them. This came after a petition was filed at the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court seeking direction to open up the 22 Taj Mahal underground rooms to check for hidden Hindu idols. While the court rejected the plea and slammed the petitioner for filing it in the first place, ASI released photos of the Taj Mahal rooms photos showing restoration work being carried on in these rooms.
ASI tweeted its January 2022 newsletter on May 9, 2022 three days before the Lucknow bench hearing of the petition. The ASI Taj Mahal photos show restoration work in the underground rooms of the Taj Mahal with no sign of Hindu idols or inscriptions in contrary to claims made earlier by several groups. The newsletter informed that maintenance work was undertaken in the Taj Mahal underground rooms, during which the decayed and disintegrated lime plaster was removed and replaced by laying of lime plaster and traditional lime processing before application.
The newsletter stated that conservation of monuments is the principal duty of ASI and they take up their tasks in a routine matter, irrespective of the fact that they are closed or open for visitors’ access. It informed that the conservation work was undertaken in underground cells of Taj Mahal, otherwise not accessible to common visitors, from December 2021 to March 2022 about which photographs are now in the public domain.
The Taj Mahal underground room photos are available on ASI’s website “for everyone to view”, informed Agra ASI chief R K Patel. ASI officials also reportedly informed that the Taj Mahal's underground rooms are not always locked and that they had no idols.
ASI January 2022 Newsletter PDF Link
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ASI Taj Mahal Room Photos: Taj Mahal Underground Rooms Pictures Before/After Restoration Work
Taj Mahal 22 Rooms Controversy
The 22 Taj Mahal underground rooms were in the news recently after a petition was filed on May 4 by an individual named Rajneesh Singh, in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court, seeking direction from the court to ASI to open the rooms to ascertain whether there are any Hindu idols hidden inside.
The petitioner had sought directives to the state government to constitute a committee to examine the 20 rooms and look for any evidence related to the presence of Hindu idols or scriptures. The petitioner referred to the claims of several Hindutva groups that claim that the Taj Mahal is actually an old Shiva Temple known as Tejo Mahalaya.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court rejected the petition on May 12 and slammed the petitioner saying, "What judgment do you want us to pronounce? Who built the Taj Mahal? Don't go into historical facts. Mandamus can only be issued when rights have been infringed. What rights of yours have been infringed?"
The division bench comprising justices DK Upadhyay and Subhash Vidyarthi asked the petitioner to not make a mockery of the PIL system and said, "We are not sitting here to decide which subject should be researched. This matter is out of court and it should be left to historians."
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