Ram Nath

Ram Nath (born 9 March 1933) is an Indian historian who specializes in Mughal architecture. He obtained a doctorate from the Agra University, and later taught at the University of Rajasthan. He is regarded as one of India's leading art historians.

Quotes

• But the unique and the most important feature of its construction is the use of... nook-shafts (corner pillars)... They bear stylized designs of kirttimukha and lahara-vallari and are obviously Hindu in their origin... Technically called a 'clerestory', this feature has been used on a large scale in the mosques of Ahmedabad in imitation of the preceding temples of the region... More than the (supposedly) corbelled ceilings and corbelled pendentives, these 11 nook-shafts testify, without any doubt, that material from some despoiled Hindu temple was used in the construction or the final restoration of this mosque.
  • Nath, R., & Historical Research Documentation Programme (India). (1991). Architecture & site of the Baburi Masjid of Ayodhya: A historical critique. Jaipur: Historical Research Documentation Programme. p. 10-11

• The foregoing study of the architecture and site of the Baburi Masjid has shown, unequivocally and without any doubt, that it stands on the site of a Hindu temple which originally existed in the Ramkot on the bank of the river Sarayu, and Hindu temple material has also been used in its construction.
  • Nath, R., & Historical Research Documentation Programme (India). (1991). Architecture & site of the Baburi Masjid of Ayodhya: A historical critique. Jaipur: Historical Research Documentation Programme. Quoted from Elst, Koenraad (2003). Ayodhya: The finale ; science versus secularism in the excavations debate.

• I have been to the site and have had occasion to study the mosque, privately, and I have absolutely no doubt that the mosque stands on the site of a Hindu temple on the north-western corner of the temple-fortress Ramkot.
  • R. Nath: letter in Indian Express, 2-1-91. Quoted from Elst, Koenraad (2002). Ayodhya: The case against the temple.

• An example, as to how the tradition lives in India through the ages, may be cited. Alexander Cunningham found during his stay in the Gwalior Fort ... an epigraph recording the construction of a Sun Temple at Gwalior... The Sun Temple mentioned in the inscription had supposedly been destroyed. But there existed on the eastern bank of the Suraj-Kund a small temple... The inscription mentioned purnima of the month of Karttika as the date of its consecration and, surprisingly, even after one and a half millenniums, the tradition was still alive and till late a fair was annually held here on the Karttika-Purnima and devotees used to worship in the temple with the water of the Suraj-Kund and this author was able to identify it mainly on the basis of this living tradition.
  • Nath, R., & Historical Research Documentation Programme (India). (1991). Architecture & site of the Baburi Masjid of Ayodhya: A historical critique. Jaipur: Historical Research Documentation Programme. p. 41