Evidence through maps: How Gyanvapi mosque was built atop Vishveshwar temple

19th century English author James Prinsep had illustrated the history of the Gyanvapi mosque and the old Vishveshwar temple. Prinsep's book "Benares Illustration" reveals surprising facts on the basis of lithography.

As the debate over the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri complex continues in the courts, some new and old facts have come to the fore. 19th century English author James Prinsep, during his stint as illustrator and traveller, decoded the present Gyanvapi mosque way back in 1831 as he travelled across the length and breadth of the city of Varanasi.

Prinsep, in his book 'Benares Illustrated, A Series of Drawings', discussed the architecture of the old Vishveshwar temple, the present Gyanvapi mosque and how Mughals under Aurangzeb converted the original structure into a capacious masjid to establish their religious hegemony.

The technique he used for this was lithography.

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James Prinsep used lithography techniques to present information with evidence. Since paintings and artifacts were not used at that time, he used lithography to engrave every scene on paper.

To understand lithography, India Today TV spoke to renowned lithography expert Bobby Kohli. Kohli explains that lithography is a printing technique that is widely used around the world. Most books, newspapers and magazines are made using lithography. It is fast, efficient, cheap and relatively easy.

The first step in lithography is creating a plate with the image to be printed. If the image is in black and white, only one plate is needed, as the plate can only be inked with black ink. Colour images are produced using a four-colour separation process, with four separate plates for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) inks. When plates are printed, the colours visually blend together, forming a colour image.