:Adina Mosque

{{Infobox religious building

| building_name = Adina Mosque

| religious_affiliation = Sunni Islam {{small|(former)}}

| status = Mosque {{small|(former)}}

| functional_status = {{ubl|Abandoned; Preserved}}

| native_name =

| native_name_lang = bn

| image = Adina Mosque at Malda district of West Bengal 08.jpg

| image_upright = 1.4

| caption = Exterior façade of the mosque

| map_type = India West Bengal

| map_size = 250

| map_relief = 1

| map_caption = Location in West Bengal

| coordinates = {{coord|25.1523|N|88.1647|E|region:IN-WB_type:mosque|display=inline,title|format=dms}}

| location = Pandua, Malda, West Bengal

| country = India

| architecture_type = {{nowrap|Mosque architecture}}

| architecture_style = Islamic {{bulleted list|Bengali|Arab|Persian|Byzantine}}

| year_completed = 1375

| groundbreaking = 1373

| dome_quantity = Several hundred

| materials = Brick and stone

| module = {{Infobox historic site

| embed = yes

| designation1 = MANI | designation1_offname = Adina Mosque | designation1_type = | designation1_criteria = | designation1_date = | delisted1_date = | designation1_partof = | designation1_number = N-WB-81 | designation1_free1name = | designation1_free1value = | designation1_free2name = | designation1_free2value = | designation1_free3name = | designation1_free3value = }}

| footnotes = {{cite web |title=List of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains of National Importance |url=http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_alphalist_westbengal.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140623184815/http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_alphalist_westbengal.asp |archive-date=23 June 2014 |access-date=17 April 2020 |work=West Bengal |publisher=Archaeological Survey of India}}

}}

The Adina Mosque is a former mosque in Malda District, West Bengal, India. It was the largest structure of its kind in the Indian subcontinent and was built during the Bengal Sultanate as a royal mosque by Sikandar Shah, who is also buried inside. The mosque is situated in Pandua, a former royal capital.

The vast architecture resembles the hypostyle of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, a style that was used during the introduction of Islam in new areas.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uunyz4qFZwEC|title=Sultans and Mosques: The Early Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh|first=Perween|last=Hasan| date=15 August 2007|publisher=I.B.Tauris|via=Google Books|isbn=9781845113810}} The early Bengal Sultanate harbored imperial ambitions after having defeated the Delhi Sultanate twice in 1353 and 1359. The Adina Mosque was commissioned in 1373.

Completed in 1374, it was the largest mosque in the entire Indian subcontinent at the time.{{Cite web |date=2024-01-31 |title=A Journey through India's Major Shrines and Controversies |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/national/a-journey-through-indias-major-shrines-and-controversies |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=Outlook India |language=en}}

The site is a Monument of National Importance.

Design

The design of the mosque incorporated Bengali, Arab, Persian and Byzantine architecture. It was built with rubble masonry that was covered with brick, stone, coatings of stucco, plaster, concrete, glazing or lime smoothing.{{Cite thesis |author=Banerji, Naseem Ahmed |date=1993 |degree=Doctor of Philosophy in Art History |title=The architecture and architectural decoration of the Adina Mosque, Pandua, West Bengal, India: The problem of the conjoined Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic motifs in the mihrab niches - ProQuest |language=en |id={{ProQuest|304044113}}}} Stone flowers were integrated into the arches of the interior and exterior all around the building. Its construction reused materials or incorporated motifs inspired by pre-Islamic Hindu and Buddhist structures. It had a rectangular hypostyle structure with an open courtyard. There were several hundred domes. The structure measured {{convert|172|by|97|m}}. The entire western wall evokes the imperial style of pre-Islamic Sasanian Persia. The mosque's most prominent feature is its monumental ribbed barrel vault over the central nave, the first such huge vault built in the subcontinent, and another feature shared in common with the Sasanian style. The mosque consciously imitated Persianate imperial grandeur. The prayer hall is five aisles deep, while the north, south and east cloisters around the courtyard consist of triple aisles. In total, these aisles had 260 pillars and 387 domed bays. The interior of the courtyard is a continuous façade of 92 arches surmounted by a parapet, beyond which the domes of the bays can be seen. The interior elevated platform, which was the gallery of the Sultan and his officials, still exists. The Sultan's tomb chamber is attached with the western wall.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FjhUAAAAMAAJ|title=The Architecture of the Adina Mosque in Pandua, India: Medieval Tradition and Innovation|first=Naseem Ahmed|last=Banerji| date=1 January 2002|publisher=Edwin Mellen Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780773472099}}{{cite news |last1=Datta |first1=Rangan |title=Beauty in ruins: Tracing the history of Pandua's glorious past |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/places/visit-pandua-the-ruined-city-in-malda-west-bengal-to-experience-the-footprints-of-generations/cid/1891784 |access-date=12 September 2023 |agency=My Kolkata |publisher=The Telegraph |date=13 October 2022}}

History

=Medieval Bengal=

The mosque was built during the reign of Sikandar Shah, the second Sultan of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty of the Bengal Sultanate. The mosque was designed to display the kingdom's imperial ambitions after its two victories against the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century.{{cite book| last = Eaton| first = Richard Maxwell| title = The Rise of Islam in the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760| pages = [https://archive.org/details/riseofislambenga00eato/page/40 40–50]| publisher = University of California Press| date = 1996| isbn = 0520205073| url = https://archive.org/details/riseofislambenga00eato/page/40}} Cut off from both north India and the Middle East in the late 8th/14th and early 9th/15th centuries, Muslim Bengali monarchs enthusiastically looked far to the west for cultural inspiration. Thus, for example, the inscription on the Ādīna Mosque describes Sultan Sekandar as “the exalted Sultan, the wisest, the most just, the most liberal and most perfect of the Sultans of Arabia and Persia (ʿArab o ʿAjam)” (S. Ahmed, p. 38).{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bengal|title=BENGAL – Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=electricpulp.com}} A few parts of the mosque's exterior wall have carvings like elephants and dancing figures. Inscriptions on the mosque proclaimed Sikandar Shah as "the exalted Sultan" and the "Caliph of the faithful".{{cite web|url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Adina_Mosque|title=Adina Mosque |website=Banglapedia}} The Sultan was buried in a tomb chamber attached to the wall facing the direction of Mecca.

The mosque was located in the historic city of Pandua, a former capital of the Bengal Sultanate. Pandua was a thriving and cosmopolitan trading center during the period of the sultanate.

=Colonial India=

The mosque was damaged by earthquakes in the 19th century. It fell into disuse. Much of Pandua also became part of the wilderness.

= Independent India =

Activists from Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishva Hindu Parishad have claimed that the mosque was built by demolishing an "Adinath Temple", and hence must be restored to the Hindus.{{Cite web |title=A Journey through India's Major Shrines and Controversies |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/national/a-journey-through-indias-major-shrines-and-controversies |access-date=2024-03-18 |website=Outlook India |date=31 January 2024 |language=en}}

Gallery

File:Adina Pano 1.jpg

Adina Mosque central mihrab on large basalt wall.jpg|The central mihrab of the mosque

Arabic inscriptions on the stone walls inside the Adina Mosque3.jpg|Arabic inscriptions on the stone walls inside the Adina Mosque

Arabic inscriptions on the stone walls inside the Adina Mosque1.jpg|Arabic inscriptions on the stone walls inside the Adina Mosque

Arabic inscriptions on the stone walls inside the Adina Mosque.jpg|Arabic inscriptions on the stone walls inside the Mosque

Adina Mosque at Malda district of West Bengal 13.jpg|Arches and columns in the interior of Adina Mosque. The elevated platform was the royal gallery where the Sultan prayed.

Adina Mosque at Malda district of West Bengal 07.jpg|Central prayer hall in the mosque

Wide view of tomb of Sikander Shah in Adina Mosque 01.jpg|Tomb of Sultan Sikandar Shah

Adina Mosque Malda (25).jpg|Detailed arabesque

Adina Mosque through the peep hole.jpg|The building seen through a peep hole

Adina Mosque, Malda, West Bengal 01.jpg|Corner of the building

Adina Mosque, Malda, West Bengal 02.jpg|Arches inside the mosque

Column from Adina Mosuqe.jpg|A column and an Arabic inscription from Adina Mosque, now in the British Museum