Pillar bases unearthed in Babri Masjid compound

In October 1990 BB Lal - led Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) team have found the pillar-bases of what may have been a temple at the site which must have belonged to a larger building than the Babri Mosque.

The team of archaeologists of the ASI, led by B.B. Lal, found rows of pillar-bases which must have belonged to a larger building than the Babri Mosque.

Accordingly, archaeological findings of burnt bases of pillars made of brick, a few meters from the mosque, indicated that a large temple stood in alignment with the Babri Mosque since the 11th century.In a trench at a distance of four metres south of the mosque, parallel rows of pillar-foundations made of brick-bats and stones were found.

Professor Gupta later commented on the findings made before 1990: “Several of the temple pillars existing in the mosque and pillar-bases unearthed in the excavations conducted in the south of the mosque (although in the adjoining plot of land) show the same directional alignment. This will convince any student of architecture that two sets of material remains belong to one and the same complex.“