1193-94: Qutub ud Din Aibak destroys the Kashi mandir

Upon Jayachandra’s defeat by Mohammed Gauri, his general, Qutub ud Din Aibak, destroys many temples in Kashi. Sadru’d-Din Muhammed Hasan Nizami records this act of destruction in ‘Taju’l-Ma’sir’: “From that place (Asni–a town in UP) the royal army proceeded towards Benares, which is the center of the country of Hind and here they destroyed nearly 1000 temples and raised mosques on their foundations, and the knowledge of the law became promulgated, and the foundations of religion were established.” (John Dawson, History of India, V. II (1869), p. 223)