image source, ROBERT NICKELSBERG/GETTY IMAGES
The order has been adjourned to October 11 in a case related to carbon dating of the Gnanavabi Masjid in Varanasi.
The four women petitioners, who sought a court hearing in the case, had asked the Varanasi District Court to conduct a carbon dating test on the sealed spot in the mosque.
The district judge heard the petition and adjourned the order on the petition to October 11.
A review was conducted at Gnanawabi Masjid in May this year. The Hindu side claimed that a Shiva lingam was later recovered from a part of the mosque. Subsequently, the lower court ordered the sealing.
Meanwhile, there is a debate about what carbon dating is and whether this test can be done for ancient buildings.
What is carbon dating?
Carbon dating is a technique used to determine the age of organic matter from organisms that were once alive.
Living things contain carbon in various forms. Carbon has an isotope called carbon-14. From this a chronology called dating can be done. It contains the atomic number 14 in element 14. Thus, an organism, over time, decays into organic matter.
After a plant or animal dies, its organic matter changes from carbon 12 to carbon 14. Or the proportion of its body remains begins to change. This change can be measured. This carbon dating can be used to calculate when an organism died.
Although this method is very useful, carbon dating cannot be used in all situations. In particular, it cannot be used to determine the age of inanimate objects such as rock.
Also, ages beyond 40,000-50,000 years cannot be estimated by organic dating. This is because after passing eight to ten cycles of the half-life of organic isotopes (half-life=5,700 years), the amount of carbon-14 is almost completely depleted.
Is it possible to carbon date ancient buildings?
image source, Getty Images
The BBC spoke to Dr Rajesh Agnihotri, a scientist at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleontology in Lucknow to find out.
He told the BBC that radiocarbon dating was the only way to determine the age of organisms after they died. By correlating this information with archaeological data, we can estimate the age of buildings.
If so, can carbon dating be done on inanimate objects?
Speaking about this, Dr. Rajesh Agnihotri said, “Stones, metals, etc. do not have organic matter, so they cannot be carbon dated. But when these inanimate materials are established, other organic materials such as grains, clothes, wood, ropes are found along with them. It can be carbon dated.” explains that.
A k from these biological materialsof the figure Can age be predicted?
Answering this question, Dr. Rajesh Agnihotri said, “Certainly the age of a building can be determined using this technique. It has to be compared with other archeological details of that particular period.” He says.
“Carbon dating techniques were also used to determine the historical period of Ram Janmabhoomi and Imambara,” says Rajesh Agnihotri.The test was carried out on samples obtained from the Archaeological Survey of India.
Gnanavabi Affair – What Happened So Far?
2022: The Varanasi District Court on September 12 accepted the petition of Hindu women seeking permission to worship Hindu deities in the Gnanavabi Masjid complex. The court rejected the opposition of the Muslim side.
2022: On May 20, the Supreme Court referred the matter to the Varanasi District Court and asked the court to decide whether the case merited further hearing or not.
2022: On May 17, the Supreme Court ordered the sealing of the Vuzukana (fountain) for the protection of the ‘Shivalingam’ and also allowed prayers to continue in the mosque.
2022: The thesis was filed on May 16 before hearing in the Supreme Court. The Varanasi civil court ordered the sealing of the area where the Shiva lingam is said to be inside the mosque. Prayers were also banned there.
2022: In May, Masjid Indjamia approached the Supreme Court over the video recording of Gnanawabi Masjid.
2022: Masjid India Jamia challenged the order in the High Court on several technicalities. It was dismissed.
2022: In April, civil court orders inspection and videography of Gnanawabi Masjid.
2021: A group called Masjid Indjamia approaches the Allahabad High Court. The High Court again stayed the civil court proceedings and condemned it.
2021: On August 18, five women from Delhi filed a petition in a Varanasi court seeking permission to worship Maa Chiringar Gauri and other deities in the mosque premises.
2021: Despite the High Court’s stay, the Varanasi Civil Court reopens the case in April and allows inspection of the mosque.
2020: The Allahabad High Court stayed the proceedings of the Civil Court. It later deferred judgment on the matter.
2020: Varanasi Civil Court is requested to hear the underlying petition.
2019: In December 2019, a month after the Ayodhya verdict, a fresh petition was filed in the Varanasi Civil Court to inspect the Gnanavabi Masjid.
1991: Gnanavabi case reaches court. In 1991, a petition was filed in the court for the first time regarding Gnanawabi Mosque. Sadhus and monks in Varanasi filed a petition in the civil court seeking worship there. The petition demanded that the mosque land be given to Hindus. But the mosque’s management committee objected to it, saying it violated the code of worship.
1991: The PV Narasimha Rao Congress government passed the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. BJP opposed this. But Ayodhya was welcomed as an exception. At the same time it demanded that Kashi and Mathura should be treated as exceptions. But according to the law, only Ayodhya has been exempted.
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