Darashbari Mosque

Vanga Shahi Masjid (ভাঙ্গা শাহী মসজিদ) is an ancient mosque in Bandura, Nawabganj. Its original year of establishment is not yet known. It is believed that it was built during the period of Mughal Emperor Jahangir, that's why it is assumed that it was built around 600 years ago.

The mosque has a legend about it. It is believed that one morning some people found it in the jungle with unfinished construction work. From that time the mosque has named "Vanga Masjid" as in the native language vanga (ভাঙ্গা) means broken. The Actual name of this mosque is still unknown.

But the truth may be like this- it was constructed at the age of Mughal Empire when Nawabganj area was a prominent merchant place. Due to erosion, local inhabitants changed their living place. At that time the mosque area was abandoned and forests grew rapidly at that area. After passing 100 years, people start making their residences in that particular area again. One day they found the mosque broken and reconstruct it.

Now it has became a well known mosque at Bandura Bazar in Nawabganj. People believe that donating here will turn their wishes true! So, the mosque has collected enough fund to built a minaret of 165 feet and still the renovation process is still going.

Korotia Zamindar Bari (করটিয়া জমিদার বাড়ি) is located at the Korotia of Tangail (করটিয়া, টাঙ্গাইল). The famous Zamindar (জমিদার) of Tangail, Wajed Ali Khan Panni (ওয়াজেদ আলী খান পান্নি) built that palace beside the Putia River (পুটিয়া নদী) at Korotia (করটিয়া). The whole Zamindar palace premise having 1000m x 500m dimension comprises of lot of old buildings and ponds.

The main gate of the building is currently locked and no outsiders are entertained to have an entry. So if you go there, make sure you can have an entry, or you have to return from there without visiting that archaic building. According to the local people, the palace is open for public at 1st and 12th boishak (বৈশাখ) of Bengali calendar, and the two Eid days.

Near the Zamindar Bari (জমিদার বাড়ি) an old mosque is available. The mosque is having eight domes in two rows. First row is having five equal sized smaller domes and the second one is having three domes where middle one is the largest. At the eastern side of the mosque, a 15 feet tall minaret is available with old stairs. I don't know the exact built date of the mosque. If you know, you can share as a comment at below.

টাঙ্গাইলের করটিয়ায় পুটিয়া নদীর পাশে ওয়াজেদ আলী খান পন্নী এই বিখ্যাত জমিদারবাড়িটি নির্মাণ করেন। ১০০০ মিটার x ৫০০ মিটার এলাকায় অবস্থিত জমিদারবাড়ির আশেপাশে বেশকিছু প্রাচীন ভবন ও পুকুর রয়েছে।

জমিদারবাড়ির মূল ফটকটি বর্তমানে তালাবদ্ধ রাখা হয় এবং বাইরের কাউকে এখানে ঢুকতে দেওয়া হয়না। তাই এই জমিদারবাড়িটি দেখতে গেলে নিশ্চিত করে যাওয়া উচিত যে আপনি ভিতরে ঢুকতে পারবেন। অন্যথায় এই ঐতিহাসিক স্থাপনাটি আপনাকে না দেখেই ফিরতে হবে। স্থানীয়দের কাছ থেকে জানা যায় যে, বাংলা বৈশাখ মাসের এক এবং বারো তারিখে ছাড়াও দুই ঈদের দিন জমিদারবাড়িটি জনসাধারণের জন্য উন্মুক্ত করে দেওয়া হয়।

জমিদারবাড়ির কাছেই রয়েছে একটি প্রাচীন মসজিদ। মসজিদটিতে দুই সারিতে আটটি গম্বুজ রয়েছে। প্রথম সারিতে পাঁচটি একই আকারের ছোট গম্বুজ রয়েছে এবং দ্বিতীয় সারির তিনটি গম্বুজের মধ্যে মাঝেরটি আকারে বড়। মসজিদের পূর্বদিকে পুরাতন সিঁড়ি বিশিষ্ট একটি ১৫ ফুট উঁচু মিনার রয়েছে। মসজিদটির নির্মাণের সময় সম্পর্কে জানা যায়নি।

Autshahi Mughal Mosque,is a ruin of Mughal period Mosque, just located beside the Autshahi (আউটশাহী) Graveyard. It’s silently containing the evidences of ancient time. People are avoiding to visit that site frequently as it is inside the boundary of graveyard.

It has two entrances and one bulbous shaped dome on the top. Basically, from the structural remains it would be very difficult to prove how it was being used or how it became so.

Walipur Alamgiri Mosque is situated in Walipur village under Hajiganj Upazila of Chandpur district. There are two mosques in the same locality - one known as Shahi Alamgiri Mosque and the other as Shah Shuja Mosque. The Alamgiri mosque has suffered much due to subsequent restoration works. Nevertheless, enough still survives to give an idea of its original plan and design. A Persian inscription in fine nastaliq character, fixed over the central doorway, records the construction of the mosque by one Abdullah in 1692 AD in the reign of Alamgir Aurangzeb.

In the middle of the eastern facade of the oblong mosque (15.24 m by 8.23 m) there is a projected fronton bordered with octagonal turrets through which opens out the main doorway. This has a higher arch with a half-dome within a rectangular frame. There are two more doorways in the eastern facade, one on either side of the central opening, having an outer arch with a half-dome below. Each of the north and south walls is pierced with a pair of arched doorways. The mosque has therefore seven archways in total -three in the east and two on each of the north and south walls. The four exterior angles of the building are strengthened by octagonal towers, which are carried beyond the horizontal parapets and topped over with kalasa finials, but have now been renovated.

Two massive octagonal brick pillars divide the interior of the mosque into five square bays - a large one in the middle (5.87m a side) and two smaller ones on its either side which are arranged in the east-west axis. Archways interconnect the bays; the arches are placed directly on two free standing octagonal pillars and engaged semi-octagonal pillars. It is worth noting that these arches are continued upwards as walls to make the bays above. This special device has given the mosque a two-storied appearance internally. All the five bays are roofed over with domes crowned with lotus and kalasa finials on cylindrical drums. The domes are carried on half-domed squinches on the upper corners and the blocked arches in between the square inches in the middle of the walls.

Octagonal turrets rising high above the horizontal parapets border the outside projection of the central mihrab, like that of the central archway. Inside, there are three mihrabs in the qibla wall. The central mihrab is semi-octagonal in design, but the flanking mihrabs are of the shallow rectangular type.

The original plastering of the building has been replaced by modern cement plaster. The horizontal parapet is now plain. The facade of the central archway projection is marked with shallow rectangular panels, each being further enriched with such motifs as plants and small trees with flowers in stucco. The central mihrab arch springs from beautifully decorated pilasters and has foliaged designs at its spandrels. The rectangular frame of the central mihrab, though now barely plain, is topped over with a frieze of blind merlons. A fine specimen of Mughal stucco ornamentation is still preserved in the squinches and blocked arches in between, which support the domes above. The extrados of the squinch arches and blocked arches are ornamented with interlocking scrolls, while the tympanums of the blocked arches are minutely embellished with floral scrolls with intertwining rosettes in the centers. Above them all round the interior base of the cylindrical drum runs a slightly sunken frieze decorated with floral scrolls.

Five-domed type mosque, one of the important varieties of Bengal mosques, shows two sub-types: (a) a mosque with a large central dome and a pair of small domes on each side in the same line and (b) a mosque with a large central dome and four small domes on the corners. The present mosque is the culminating example of the second variety. Both in planning and in the execution of elevation details of the building, the architect and the artisans have left behind a clear mark of their skills and perfection of ideas. The division of the interior of the mosque into five squares has been very scientifically effected by the disposition of two octagonal short massive freestanding pillars instead of the two east-west wide arches of the previous examples of the series. Mosques on this model were not built in Bengal for a long time, but almost two centuries later the type reappeared in the Becharam Dewri Mosque (1872) in the city of Dhaka. In plan Becharam Dewri Mosque is an exact copy of the Alamgiri Mosque but inferior in quality and elevation details.

Such mosque design in Bengal started with austagram mosque and evolved through the sarail mosque and the Walipur Alamgiri Mosque. The design is really unique. Question may now arise as to the origin of this particular kind of Bengal mosques. In Turkey under the early Ottomans the mosque of Rustam Celebi (c first half of the 15th century) at Tokat provides perhaps the earliest known example of its kind with five domes - the large central one and a small one on four corners. Similar plan is also found in such other Ottoman mosques as the Guzelce Hasan Bey Mosque (1406) in Hayrabolu and the Uc Serefeli Cam (1437-47) at Edirne. These mosques are generally regarded as the precursors of the great Ottoman mosques at Istambul - Bayezid mosque (1501-06), Sulaymaniya Mosque (1550-59), and the beautiful Selimya Mosque (1569-75) at Edirne. The five-roomed or five-domed planning of the Ottoman mosques may perhaps be said to have been dictated by those of some early Muslim buildings of Syria.

In India the Jamat Khana Mosque (1310-16) at Delhi is a lone example of its kind. This mosque design continued to have been practiced in Northern India in an elaborated form in Humayun's Mosque (1530) at Agra, where four small domed-rooms, instead of two, are attached on either side of the large central domed chamber. It may, therefore, be said that the plan of the second variety of the five-domed type mosques in Bengal was not innovated by Bengal architects, and its idea is very likely to have been borrowed from the sources stated above, particularly perhaps from those of Turkey or Upper India.

Written by: MA Bari