The Mosque

About this monument

The Bari Masjid is one of the earliest and largest mosques in Bengal. It is a long low building divided laterally into three aisles and longitudinally into twenty one bays by parallel rows of pillars. Between the crossings of the bays and aisles were twenty one blocks each of which was domed. None of the domes are now extant but some of the pillars or remains thereof once supporting these domes can still be recognized. The façade, facing east, has twenty one arched entrances opposite which in the rear wall are equal number of brick mihrabs indicating the qibla side. By the side of the central mihrab is the mimbar for the imam to give sermon. It is the earliest noticeable example of such a feature in Bengal. The massive mosque has many other characteristics to influence the future development of this architectural form during the Sultanate period of Bengal. In the construction of the mosque, materials from demolished Hindu temples were liberally used. On stylistic ground, themosque may be assigned to the first half of the 14th century A.D.

Site plan

Site plan from the ASI Inventory of Monuments and Sites of National Importance, Vol. VII Part IV, Kolkata Circle (2015).

Photographs