This article exposes the lies and factual mistake committed by Ram Puniyani in his lecture about temple demolition by Muslim invaders. We have found that most of his videos are factually incorrect and more often than not he quotes unreliable sources.

I came to know about Prof Ram Punyani when I watched a viral video in which he claimed that Maratha Army destroyed Sringeri Math in Srirangpatanam when they couldn't defeat Tipu Sultan. I have already debunked his claims that the Maratha Army didn't attack Sringeri Math. The attack on Sringeri was a job of Pindaris and an altogether stray incident in the Maratha scheme of things. The attack by Pindaris was before the war and not after as being claimed by Ram Punyani.

I have come across another video in which he has tried to whitewash the crimes of Islamic invaders. Watch the video below.

At 0.22, Rama Puniyani begins by playing down Muhammad Ghazni's religious bigotry. He puts on a map and shows Somnath in Rajasthan. The real Somnath temple which was destroyed by Md. Ghazni is on the coast of the Arabian Sea in Gujarat. Refer to the image below. Source: Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History by Romila Thapar (p 36-37).

His next slide(0.26) says the distance between Ghazni(or Ghazna) and Somnath temple is 5000 KM. He also said Md. Ghazni came via Multan. But when we searched for it on Google, we found that the distance between Somnath temple and Ghazni via Multan is approx 2000 KM. Check it yourself here.

Since the distance calculation is itself wrong, his claims of 10000 temples in his route to Somnath is false. If we trust his argument of having 5 temples per km, then it should be around 4000 temples (800 * 5).

Ram Puniyani continues with his lies and makes a fraudulent claim that the Ghaznavid army consisted of 35% Hindus (2:20 in the video). No such data is available because nobody ever took a census back then. Apart from a general by the name Tilak(Buddhist?), no other Ghaznavid Hindu-Buddhist is known from sources.

The core of the Ghaznavid army was the slave force (Ghilman). The slave army of Ghaznavids consisted of Indians/Hindus, Turks, and some Tajiks. Like Arabs and Kurds, the Indians/Hindus had their own commander, the "Sipahsalar-i-Hinduyan", and had their own quarters in Ghazni. Even the general named Tilak was a slave captured during the war.

Reference: Ghaznavid military organization" by C.E.Bosworth.

So the claim of Mr. Puniyani is the half-truth. The Hindu soldiers in his army were mostly slave captured during the war.

At 3.31, Ram Puniyani tries to absolve Islamism from Ghaznavid terrorism and says Ghazni destroyed this mosque in Multan in the 11th century! Was this an 11th-century Mosque destroyed by Ghazni as claimed by Ram Puniyani? No, this is grave of Sufi saint Rukn-E-Alam built in 1324 CE. A simple reverse image search revealed it. See the result yourself here.

Not a mosque from the 11th century as claimed by Mr. Puniyani

So Did Md. Ghazni destroy any mosque in Multan? The answer is no if we trust primary sources. Even a Marxist historian Romila Thapar admits that Ghazni did not destroy Multan mosque [Snippet source: Somanatha By Romila Thapar, Penguin 2008]

Ram Puniyani continues his lies. At 6.31, he states that Aurangzeb destroyed this mosque in Golconda.

Is this a mosque which Aurangzeb destroyed? No, this is not a mosque. These are graves of Qutb Shahi kings(Qutb Shahi Tombs). Watch this video on youtube to find out more about this tomb.

American Historian Richard Eaton admits that Aurangzeb never destroyed mosques of rival kings of Golkonda and Bijapur but instead patronized them. [Source: Richard Eaton, Temple desecration, and the Indo Muslim States, University Press Florida(2000)]

In the video (11.09-11.53) Ram Puniyani says Kashi Vishwanath temple is a temple of Vishnu. But again he is wrong. The Kashi Vishwanath is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. In fact, Kashi Vishwanath is revered as one of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Shiva. source

At 12.12, Ram Puniyani makes another fraudulent claim. He says Aurangzeb destroyed Kashi Vishnvanath temple because Brahmin priests (Mahant of the temple) raped a queen inside it. Is there a primary source to this claim? No. Secondary source?

Origin of this theory: A Gandhian Congress leader Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, in his famous book, The Feathers and the Stones, has written it based on a manuscript of Benares Masjid which was in possession of an unnamed Muslim friend of his unnamed acquaintance.

This Myth was demolished by Dr. Koenraad Elst long ago. Read it here in detail.

Forget about pro-Hindutva people, his claims are contradicted by Marxists historians like Romila Thapar as well. It's a matter of grave concern that this guy goes around the country and talks about history.



This is the first part. We promise to do fact check of other videos of Ram Puniyani very soon. Stay Tuned.

Note: A twitter user True Indology had already exposed the mistakes and lies of Ram Puniyani in this video.