BHOPAL, May 15 -- The disputed Bhojshala Temple-Kamal Maula Mosque complex in Dhar district is a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court held on Friday and ordered the government to provide a separate plot of land to Muslims to construct a mosque.

"The religious character of disputed area of the Bhojshala Complex and Kamal Maula Mosque is held to be a Bhojshala with a temple of goddess Vagdevi (Saraswati)," a bench of justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi said in a 242-page judgment.

The bench also held that the disputed area had been a protected monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, since March 18, 1904, and struck down the portion of...