A video through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that Muslims were turning Telangana’s Jogulamba temple into a mosque. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Muslims turning Telangana Jogulamba temple into a mosque.
Fact: The video shows the 17th century Shah Ali’s Dargah located in Alampur of Jogulamba Gadwal district, Telangana. Shah Ali Dargah was constructed over 15th to 17th century amidst the Navabrahma temples in Alampur. Navabrahma temples are in the same complex as Jogulamba temple, which is one of the 18 Maha Shakti Peethas. There are no recent news reports which say that Muslims were turning Telangana Jogulamba temple into a mosque. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, the same video was found tweeted by Telangana BJP MLA, Raja Singh. His tweets were about the Jogulamba temple in Alampur of Jogulamba Gadwal district, Telangana. According to this tweet, he requested the Telangana government to remove illegal encroachments like Dargah and Masjid in the courtyards of Hindu temples. In a letter to Archaeological Survey of India, he requested them to remove the non-Hindu religious constructions in the ‘Ancient Jogulamba Shakti Peetham premises.’
Raja Singh, in his letter, did not say that the Muslims were turning the temple into a mosque. He said that the Dargah had appeared long time back. “It is observed that, long back there is a Darga (which) appeared all of the (a) sudden in the temple premises and a Kaman constructed overnight. But, there is no action initiated by the Government Departments for the illegal encroachment into Hindu religious temple.”
Alampur in Telangana is a temple town with many ancient temples like Sangameshwara temple, Papanasi temple, Jogulamba Bala Brahmeswara Swamy temples, and Navabrahma group of temples. However, there is also a 17th century dargah named Shah Ali’s Dargah in Alampur.
The Shah Ali Dargah was constructed over 15th to 17th century midst the Navabrahma temples in Alampur. The Hindus temples were constructed from 7th to 9th centuries. “These Temples and the Dargah were surveyed by the Muslim archaeologist Ghulam Yazdani over 1926–1927 for the Nizam of Hyderabad, published as an Annual Report of the Archaeology Department in 1929. According to Yazdani, this site was a focus of the religious wars, the Islamic monuments used some of the temple walls and masonry ruins.”
The already constructed Dargah can be seen in Google maps. The Dargah can also be seen in this YouTube video where the dargah is in the background near the parking area of the Jogulamba temple complex
There are no recent news reports which say that Muslims were turning Telangana Jogulamba temple into a mosque.
Factly had reached out to Hyderabad circle of Archaeological Survey of India. They directed us to the Alampur area incharge named Ravichandran, who confirmed to us that the claim was false as the Shah Ali Dargah was older than the ASI department itself. There was no new construction of a Dargah at the Jogulamba temple in Telangana.
To sum it up, this video shows the 17th century Shah Ali’s Dargah which was constructed amidst the Navabrahma temples in Alampur, Telangana.
