Prayagraj: Controversy has broken out over the sacred Akshayvat, a banyan tree mentioned in Ramayana , which is slated to be open for the pilgrims by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday.
Prime minister Narendra Modi had visited Akshayvat on December 16 last and had narrated the importance of Akshayvat, which was under the control of army inside the Akbar fort on the bank of Ganga but now has been vacated for pilgrim visit.
But before the opening of Akshayvat by UP CM on Saturday along with inauguration of an idol of Saraswati, the head of the Akshayvat Patalpur temple has claimed that already the pilgrims were having the darshan of Akshayvat and the new one has no relevance.
Mahant Ravindra Nath Yogeshwar, manager of the Akshayvat Patalpuri temple, which is also situated inside the Akbar fort, told mediapersons here on Thursday evening that pilgrims were visiting and worshiping at the Akshayvat Patalpuri temple for the past several decades and it is the original place of religious importance as narrated in Ramayana. "The new Akshayvat, which was under army control has no religious significance. It is only politics done with the Hindu sentiments," the Mahant claimed with stressing that Akshayvat is originally at Patalpuri.
Deputy manager of the Akshayvat Patalpuri temple Mukeshnath Goswami too supported the views of the Mahant and claimed that this Patalpuri has been recognised for the past over four decades though dispute arose several times. "The government gazette issued in 1928 by the British government also said that Akshayvat Patalpuri is the original Akshayvat," he said.
"However dispute arose in 1950 when a local legisator Shivnath Katju and historial Dr Ishwari Prasad fought over the relevence of Akshayvat Patalpuri. A probe was done in 1956 and government in 1968 and then again in 1994 in its gazette had recognized Patalpuri as the original akshayvat," Goswami said. However, local people claimed that the priests of the Patalpuri were annoyed with the opening of the new Akshayvat temple as it would decrease their income and hence they are opposing it.
Historian Edward Balfour identifies a banyan tree mentioned in Ramayana with the tree at Prayag where Lord Ram, Lakshman and Sita were said to have rested beneath this tree.
The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang also mentioned a tree (a stump with few branches) which was said to be the home of a man-eating demon. As part of a custom, some pilgrims would offer themselves at the nearby temple. Xuanzang mentions that the tree was surrounded with the human bones. Alexander Cunningham identified this tree with the Akshayavat at Prayag. Rishabha (Jain tirthankar) is also said to have practised tapasya beneath the historical Akshayavat at Prayag. Currently, a sacred fig tree located within the Patalpuri Temple at the Allahabad Fort is worshipped as the Akshayavat described in ancient texts.
But there are several facts that show that the original Akshayvat is not at Patalpuri temple. According to the Welsh travel writer Fanny Parkes, who visited both the tree sites in 1831, when the original Akshayavat chamber was closed, the local Brahmins set up the stump of a ber tree in Patalpuri. They claimed that it was a branch of the original Akshayavat that had penetrated through the walls.
Parkes states that the local Hindus of Prayag knew about this and did not worship the false Akshayavat.
An 18th century map of the Fort from the British Library confirms that the location of the original temple is shown in the center of the fort, while the present-day Patalpuri Temple is on the outskirts of the Fort.
In the 1950s, local legislator Shiva Nath Katju also claimed that the "tree" placed in the Patalpuri Temple was only a log that was replaced by the priests every 4–5 years. UNI