Places of worship originally belonging to Muslims, Christians, Jains, and Buddhists, have been converted to Hindu places of worship. There have been active movements to convert non-Hindu religious sites into temples, primarily in the West[1] and in India.
Mosque conversions to Hindu temples are particularly observed during the decline of Muslim rule and the rise of Hindu nationalist movements. For example, a notable instances includes the Babri Masjid land converting into the Ram Janmabhumi temple.[2] During medieval India, similar instances were observed when political power shifted leading to alterations in religious structures.[3]
This lists contains former mosques built by destroying Hindu temples on sites of religious significance which have now been reclaimed and converted back into Hindu temples. It also includes temples where the original structure of the mosque no longer survives and the temple was built on that site.
The town of Farrukhnagar was founded by Mughal Governor Faujdar Khan in 1732 CE. It was named after the Mughal Emperor, Farrukhsiyar. He constructed the Jama Masjid as the principal mosque of this new town, which is now used as a Hindu temple and Sikh Gurdwara.[4][5]
The mosque is built to the west of the courtyard of the Tomb of Dana Shir Bahlul Shah. It is completely built of small bricks and is plastered with fine white stucco.[5][7]
This table lists former Churches with identified original buildings that have been converted into Hindu Temples. It only includes those Churches where the original structure was never a site of a temple.
A Hindu sect, known as Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan, has been buying former churches and converting them into temples, in the US and the UK.[8]
A 30-year-old church, Grace Bible Church, was converted to a temple to accommodate the Gujarati community of Chesapeake near Portsmouth, Virginia.[10][11]
June 1970: The first BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in the UK was opened in a converted disused Anglican church in Islington, North London, by Yogiji Maharaj.[18] It was also called the Mission Hall of St. John's.[19]
A Unity Church of the Unitarian denomination, on Deane Road was a fine example of late 19th-century religious gothic in red brick with terracotta detailing. It was converted to a temple in 1973 and rebuilt into a larger building after demolishing the old structure in 1993.[22]
Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan Maninagar purchased a 100-year-old church. The organization said the heritage structure, as declared by the Canadian government, will be preserved and restored.[8]
In 2012, the Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan Maninagar purchased a church in Van Nuys (a suburb of Los Angeles), California, and converted it to a Hindu temple.[8][25]
A 100-year-old church in Scarborough was declared a heritage structure by the Canadian government. The church was built over 9,000 sq ft, included a community hall and house.[8]
A church overnight turned into a temple adorned with a portrait of Shiva after what some Hindu groups in Asroi, near Aligarh, termed the "ghar wapasi" (reconversion) of 72 Valmikis who had become Christians in 1995.[30]
On 12 December 2005, the home of Pastor Ramesh Masih Bhatti, where the church was meeting, had been taken over by Hindus and converted into a Hindu temple. A Hindu god's idol had been placed at the doorway, and Bhatti was forced to leave his house with his family, where they had lived for 25 years. A militant leader in the area reportedly announced a campaign to move throughout the area's villages forcing Christians to reconvert to Hinduism.[32][33]
The Old Stoneywood Church on Bankhead Road, which dated back to the 1840s, was converted to Aberdeen's first Hindu temple in 2019. According to Aberdeen Hindu Temple Trust, there were more than 3,500 Hindu religion followers in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, but the closest temple was 70 miles away in Dundee.[34][35]
Toronto's oldest Hindu temple, the Hindu Prarthana Samaj temple was established after the Prarthana Samaj congregation officially bought the Fern Avenue Church of Christ in 1979. The church was one of the earliest Presbyterian churches in the area, first named the Ruth Street Presbyterian Mission in 1886; later renamed the Fern Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1894 when Ruth Street was renamed Fern Avenue; and then from 1910/1913 to 1979, was known as the Fern Avenue Church of Christ.[36][37][38]
Up to 11 Hindu temples have been built on Buddhist sites in the villages of Machilipatnam and Nidumolu, in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. The buildings were converted into Hindu temples by the Chalukya folk.[39]
Kachchi Kuti
Kushan-era stupas, identified as the Anathapindika (or Sudatta) Stupa
The earliest structures of Kachchi Kuti, which were Buddhist, date to the Kushan period; over which a Brahmanical temple with terracotta panels depicting scenes from the Ramayana was constructed during the Gupta period.[40][41][42]
The temple was a Buddhist shrine till the 8th century and Adi Shankara revived the shrine and converted it to a Hindu temple.[45][46]
Conversion of Jain sites into Hindu temples
Many Jain temples were converted to Hindu temples by replacing the statues of Tirthankaras with Shiva lingams. Jainism started its decline due to the aggressive rise of Veerashaivism.[47][48]
One of the oldest temples in Hanamkonda (which was originally a Shaivite site), it had a Jain shrine which was converted into a Hindu temple dedicated to Padmavathi. The statues of Tirthankaras engraved on walls are now worshiped as local deities.[49][47]
Paul Dundas in his book The Jains mentions that the Mahalaxmi temple in Kolhapur was a Jain temple.[50] Sheshashayee Vishnu which is an octagonal structure closer to the eastern gate has a panel of 60 Jain Tirthankaras carvings.[51][52]
The sanctum houses a pedestal depicting seven hoods of a naga, which formed the canopy of the image of Parshvanatha originally placed there. A shiva lingam was placed on the pedestal after the structure was converted to a Hindu temple.[53][54]
↑ Thapar, Romila; Mukhia, Harbans; Bipan Chandra, eds. (2010). Communalism and the writing of Indian history (9. printed.). New Delhi: People's Publ. House. p.45. ISBN978-81-7007-064-1.
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