[Jamuna]

Press Trust of India
London, March 13
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Giving a new dimension to the Ayodhya issue, a London-based Buddhist researcher on Thursday claimed that the disputed site was 'Saketa', Lord Buddha's final resting place, and said the only solution to the dispute lay in building Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu places of worship.
"We urge all right thinking people of India to put an end to this dispute. The only solution to the Ayodhya conflict is to apportion equal parts of the soil to Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu by building vihara, masjid and temple as a national unity symbol on the disputed site," Krishna B Gamre, director of Ambedkar Centenary Trust (London) said in a statement here.

Gamre said he had undertaken some research on Ayodhya and he along with Sir Alexander Cunningham, a respected authority on the subject, agree that the disputed site was Gautama Buddha's Saketa.

"The original site was demolished and desecrated by Muslim invaders," he said.

According to him Chinese traveller and scholar Hwen Tsang also pointed out long before Cunningham that the disputed site was not the birth-place of Lord Rama as claimed by "Hindu fundamentalists."

Claiming that there is no need for judicial intervention and repetition of archaeological survey, he said, "Arbitration by the wise-men from all three faiths can stave off a disaster that threatens if the fanatics among Hindus and Muslims have their way."



Source: Hindustan Times
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