How government guide misguided people about ASI-controlled historical site Modhera

By Rajiv Shah

I visited Modhera, a historical site of abandoned sun temple, built in the 11th century, the other day with family friends who had come from New Jersey. Situated about 100 from Ahmedabad, I got interested in how the expert guide had sought to identify its destruction.

The guide insisted (he claimed to have been certified by the government), the temple was destroyed first by Mahmud of Ghazni and then by Alauddin Khilji, though there seemed to be little expert confirmation -- quite unlike the Somnath temple, about which a Gujarat government site points how it was destroyed 17 times over, including by Mahmud of Ghazni in the 1299 century and then by Aurangzeb in 1706.
Though it is essentially an abandoned sun temple, protected by the Archeological Survey of India, the guide talked of how it represented different gods and goddesses, including Radha and Krishna, and Ram and Sita. No expert references to the site talks of this.

Later, we went to the museum, an elderly person was seemed quite worked up after listening to the guide. He approached me, stating, "See, Alauddin Khilji destroyed this site. But for the Mughals, who destroyed it, this would have been a live temple."
I asked him whether Alauddin Khilji was a Mughal, and he nodded. Then I told him the year when Alauddin Khilji, a Delhi Sultanate ruler of the 14th century, ruled. I asked tell me find when the Mughals came to India. And he had no India!

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