Plea in Madhya Pradesh HC for Jains’ right to worship at Bhojshala

INDORE: A social activist has filed a writ petition in Indore bench of high court, seeking "right to worship" for his Jain community members in the disputed Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Mosque complex in Dhar.
The petition claims this complex was once a Jain Gurukul and a Jain temple where an idol of Goddess Ambika was installed.
The HC is likely to hear this week the petition filed on June 29 by Delhi-based social activist Salek Chand Jain, his lawyer Manohar Singh Chauhan said Monday.
The plea has been moved at a time when ASI is set to present its report on its survey of the 11-century complex. While Hindus believe the monument is a temple of Goddess Vagdevi (Saraswati), the Muslim community calls it Kamal Maula Mosque.
The activist's petition says that translation of various scriptures in Sanskrit, Prakrit and other languages was also done in this complex, hence members of the Jain community should be given the 'right to worship' at this place.
The plea says that the idol found in Bhojshala complex, which Hindus say is of Vagdevi, is actually the idol of the Jain community's Goddess Ambika (Jain Yakshini) which was installed there by King Bhoj of Dhar in 1034 AD. The petitioner requests that this idol, kept at a museum in London, be brought back to India and re-installed in the Bhojshala complex.