"It was in 1990 that Lal wrote about the “pillar-base theory” on the basis of his excavations at Ayodhya in the 1970s. He claimed to have found temple-like pillars which, he said, would have formed the foundation of the Babri Masjid. Lal’s findings were published in the magazine ‘Manthan’. His theory was later recognised as the interpretive framework of the Allahabad High Court-appointed excavation team in 2003...In an interview to The Indian Express in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case in 2019, Lal had said: “Archaeological investigations had clearly established that there was a temple at the site before the construction of the mosque, and we were happy that the Supreme Court took due notice of this fact in pronouncing its judgment.”"