Tejo Mahalaya

Purushottam Nagesh Oak

Purushottam Nagesh Oak (March 2, 1917 - December 4, 2007), commonly referred to as P. N. Oak, was an Indian writer, notable for his historical revisionism. Oak's "Institute for Rewriting Indian History" issued a quarterly periodical called Itihas Patrika in the 1980s.

In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak claims that the Taj Mahal was originally a Shiva temple or a Rajput palace earlier known as "Tejo Mahalaya "seized by Shah Jahan and adopted as a tomb.

The Taj, Oak says, is a "typical illustration of how all historic buildings and townships from Kashmir to Cape Comorin though of Hindu origin have been ascribed to this or that Muslim ruler or courtier".^[14] He goes on to propose Hindu origins for the tombs of Humayun, Akbar and Itmiad-u-Dallah and "all historic buildings" in India .

Oak petitioned demanding that the Taj be declared a Hindu monument and that cenotaphs and sealed apartments be opened to determine whether Shivalingam or other temple remains were hidden in them.^[14] According to Oak, the Indian government's refusal to allow him unfettered access amounts to a conspiracy against Hinduism. The Indian government has maintained that unnecessary openings of cenotaphs (tombs) cannot be allowed out of respect for the dead.

In 2000 India's Supreme Court dismissed Oak's petition to declare that a Hindu king had built the Taj Mahal and reprimanded him for bringing the action, saying he had a "bee in his bonnet" about the Taj.^[19][20] In 2005 a similar petition was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court. This case was brought by Amar Nath Mishra, a social worker and preacher who says that the Taj Mahal was built by the Hindu King Parmar Dev in 1196.

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