As a Benarasi Hindu, I've been always told by my grandfather that when he used to visit Kashi Vishwanath temple in his childhood where he regularly used to see the hidden decapitated idols of gods in the mosque basement through the mosque windows...

There was a time in this country when people believed that if you just enter this city you will be liberated, because it was such a powerful space. Above all, the heart of the city was Vishwanath. The temple was destroyed a long time ago, but it is supposed to have been consecrated by Adiyogi himself.

In the last few centuries, particularly in the last six to seven centuries, Kashi was razed to the ground three times over. There were 26,000 shrines in Kashi, but today there are only 3,000 because they were all systematically pulled down during invasions.

Kashi Vishwanath temple, which is the core of Kashi must have been the most phenomenal place for it to draw people from across the world. It is a misfortune that we were not alive when it was in full glory. It was pulled down three times and they built it back three times, in whichever way possible.

Then, when Aurangzeb came, he saw that if you pull it down, these guys will build it back, because this is not a religion run by one leadership somewhere; this is something that lives in everyone's homes and hearts. It is not something that is campaigned; it is a connection that people made. It is not driven by a belief but by a phenomenal experience and connection with the rest of the existence.

When he saw this, he decided to build a mosque in the core of the Kashi Vishwanath temple. He demolished the whole temple but left a small portion of the temple as a warning and a lesson for the people of this culture that you cannot correct what has been done to the temple. This is where the Kashi Vishwanath linga is right now; it is outside the temple area.

It used to be at the Vishweshwara sanctum. Now that is the center of the mosque, which is covering the whole central area, north to south. When the linga was removed and thrown out, they wanted to throw it in a place where you could not find it. We do not know whether they just threw it out or broke it and then threw it out.

Some people say that there are two pieces, and out of their emotion and love, people tried to put it together. And there is a story that there is a well called Gyanvapi. Gyanvapi means a well of knowledge. They say that people hid and preserved the linga in this well, so that it will not be completely destroyed.

And after things settled down, they brought it out and established it outside on the southern corner somewhere. I do not even know if it is the same linga. People would want to replace it to keep people's faith going, otherwise people would psychologically break that it is gone. Someone might have replaced it, or maybe they really did preserve it.