The Temple has been referred to in Hindu scriptures for a very long time as a central part of worship in the Shaiva philosophy. It had been demolished by many Muslim rulers many times, most recently by Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor who constructed the Gyanvapi Mosque on its site.[1] The current structure was built on an adjacent site by the Maratha ruler, Ahilya Bai Holkar of Indore in the year 1780.[2]