Supreme Court to decide if Ayodhya land is Buddhist land

A petition has been filed by a Buddhist, Vineet Kumar Maurya, who is a resident of Ayodhya as well as a member of the Buddhist community before the Supreme Court claiming that the disputed land at Ayodhya is, in fact, a Buddhist site. The petition says the claim is on the bases of the 4 excavations carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at the disputed site, with the last one being held in 2002-2003 on the orders of Allahabad High Court's Lucknow Bench.The petition also claims that there was a Buddhist structure at the site before Babri mosque was constructed. The petition has been filed as a civil suit under Article- 32 (read with Articles- 25, 26 and 29) of the Constitution on behalf of the members of the Buddhist society “ who are practising and living their lives according to the principles of Lord Buddha and have an inner urge to see that all the issues having significance to the Buddhist religion may be adjudicated in a fair, impartial and just manner” . The petition further claims that there was a structure relating to the Buddhist religion at the site even before Babri Mosque was constructed there. “ The ASI excavation had revealed the existence of stupas, circular stupas, walls and pillars which are distinctive features of a Buddha Vihar,” said Maurya in the petition. “ No ruins of any temple or any Hindu structure have surfaced in the 50 trenches that had been excavated,” claimed Maurya. He added that the petition has appealed to the SC to declare “ the disputed site as a Buddha Vihar like Shravasti, Kapilvastu, Kushinagar, Sarnath” .