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User:Upd Edit/Shahi Jama Masjid

Coordinates: 28°34′51″N 78°34′02″E / 28.58073°N 78.56714°E / 28.58073; 78.56714
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Shahi Jama Masjid Sambhal
Entry Gate of Shahi Jama Masjid
Religion
AffiliationIslam
Ecclesiastical or organizational statusActive
Location
LocationSambhal, Uttar Pradesh, India
Geographic coordinates28°34′51″N 78°34′02″E / 28.58073°N 78.56714°E / 28.58073; 78.56714
Architecture
TypeMosque
Date establishedc. 1526

Shahi Jama Masjid (Urdu: شاہی جامع مسجد) is the oldest surviving Mughal-era mosque in South Asia. Located in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, it was established during the reign of Babur in December, 1526.[1] The mosque is a protected monument under the Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1904.[2]

Establishment

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According to an extant inscription on the mihrab, on 6 December 1526, Emperor Babur commanded Mir Hindu Beg, the regional Governor, to construct the mosque.[3] However, both Ram Nath and Catherine Asher, scholars of Mughal architecture, doubt that Babur had any personal involvement; while Asher suggests that the inscription might have merely alluded to Babur's permission to regional governors to construct mosques in newly gained territories, Nath believes that Beg refurbished an old Lodi-era mosque.[1][4]

Records of the mosque-keeper include a confirmation of the office in 1689 and multiple revenue-grants towards the maintenance of the mosque across the eighteenth century.[5]

Architecture

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The mosque is situated atop the highest hillock in Sambhal, known as the Kot.[5] A gate-complex on the east opens to a square-shaped courtyard with a well and an ablution tank.[3][1] The courtyard leads to the rectangular prayer chamber with a square-shaped central bay; a dome, supported on an octagonal squinch, enclose the top of the bay.[3][1] On either side of the chamber, there exists a three-bayed double-aisled arcade, accessible by doorways.[3][1]

John Burton-Page, a scholar of Indian architecture, notes the mosque to be imposing but "utterly undistinguished" in architectural novelty.[6] Scholars have noted a high degree of similarity with the Sharqi architecture of Jaunpur, especially in the usage of iwans; Catherine Asher suggests a reliance on local artisans.[3][1]

Repairs and restoration

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Nath believes that the structure has been extensively improved upon and hence, it is impossible to guess the original plan of the mosque.[4] Inscriptions on the mihrab attest to repairs undertaken in 1625–26 and 1656–57; in the former, the mosque was referred to as an "old mosque".[7] Two inscriptions above the outer and inner arches of the central chamber record restorations effected by local Muslims about 1846.[5] In 1920, the mosque was brought under the purview of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1904, and designated as a protected monument.[2]

Claims of converted Hindu Temple

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Mughal Era

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Ānand Rām Mukhliṣ, a Mughal scribe who toured Sambhal in 1745, noted Babur's son, Humayun, to have ordered the conversion of what was once a domed temple, the Hara[a][b] However, Mukhliṣ did not take umbrage at the conversion, remarking that what was a place of worship continued to be one.[8] He further described an adjacent water tank that continued to attract Hindu pilgrims and was frequented by Brahmin priests and flower-sellers.[8]

In 1770, Aḥmad ʿAlī, a scribe under the employment of East India Company, toured Sambhal and reproduced an account similar to Mukhliṣ'[16]; a decade before, Rai Chatar Man Kayath had noted the "Har Mandil" to be a sacred site for Hindus.[15]

British Rule

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In 1789, Thomas Daniell and William Daniell etched two drawings of the mosque while travelling through Sambhal; in one of them, Thomas noted the mosque to be "on the site of a Hindoo temple."[17][c]

Pencil and wash drawing of the Sambhal Jama Masjid. 24 March 1789.

In 1874, A. C. L. Carlleyle, working for the Archaeological Survey of India, surveyed the mosque — he found that the bricks of the central bay were stripped of their stone casings before being plastered over, that the stones in the courtyard pathway contained fragments of Hindu sculptures underneath, and that the bricks used for the side bays were smaller than those of the central bay.[18] Thus, Carlleyle proposed that the central bay was a Hindu temple that was converted into a mosque—wherein the stone casings with sculptures were stripped and repurposed as footsteps out of aniconic impulses—and followed up with the addition of side bays.[18] He also alleged local Muslims to have confessed to him about the extant inscriptions being forgeries and about how they had usurped total control of the site only around 1850.[18][d]

Around the same time, Ganga Prashad, Deputy Collector of the district, noted the mosque to still have the chain for the suspension of a bell; further, Hindu pilgrims still engaged in parikrama around the mosque.[19][e]

Litigation

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In 1878, local Hindus filed a plea in the Moradabad Civil Court asking for the site to be returned to them; they lost the case having failed to prove that the Muslims did not have continuous possession of the site for the last twelve years.[21][22] Additionally, the parikrama path did not go through the mosque and witness for the Hindu side were noted to be of a "poor quality" who had never seen the inside of the mosque.[21]

Independent India

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2024 Litigation and Riots

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Main article: 2024 Sambhal Violence

On 19 November 2024, Vishnu Shankar Jain, known for his involvement in the Gyanvapi Dispute, filed a petition in the Chandausi Civil Court arguing the mosque to have been built over a Shri Hari Har Temple and asked for an immediate survey of the site.[22][23] The prayer was granted ex parte and the survey was completed by evening.[22] On 24 November, there was an attempt at a fresh survey which gave rise to apprehensions of the surveyors excavating the mosque; stone-pelting and arson followed, resulting in four deaths, likely from retaliatory police firing.[22] A week later, the Supreme Court of India directed the Civil Court to pause all proceedings until the Allahabad High Court heard the Mosque Committee's challenge to the survey order; the Court ordered the survey report to not be unsealed and emphasized upon the responsibility of the government to maintain peace.[24][25]

Local Hindus claim that they have always held the mosque to be Harihar Mandir and that they used to offer prayers at a nearby well till a few decades ago; local Muslims do not oppose the Hindu claims but assert that such a temple existed in the mosque’s vicinity in ancient times, and not at the site itself.[22] Commentators and scholars note the litigation to be part of a broader Hindu Nationalist assault on Indian Muslims.[26][27][28]

Scholarly views

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Howard Crane, a scholar of Islamic art and architecture, found it implausible that the site of mosque could have been ever occupied by a temple.[3] In contrast, Ram Nath, a scholar of Mughal architecture, agrees that a temple was converted into the mosque and notes pillars of the temple to have been reused.[4][29]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Subrahmanyam and Alam are incorrect in reading Har as Shiva than Hari (Vishnu); Punjabis typically pronounce Hari as Har. Mukhlis quoted a refrain from the Kalki avatar section of the Dasam Granth to provide the context of the temple: "Great is the fortune of Sambhal where Harji will come to the Harmandal".[8] The actual refrain is slightly different and clearer: Bhalu Bhaaga Bhayaa Eih Saanbhala Ke Hari Joo Hari Maandari Aavahige i.e., "Great is the fortune of Sambhal where the Lord will manifest Himself at the Hari Mandir." Mandal (trans. Temple of Vishnu), into the mosque upon receiving the jagir of the district; he also came across Babur's foundational inscription and chronicled it.[8]
    In South Asian history, the concept of Kalki, the final incarnation of Vishnu, is likely invoked for the first time in Mahabharata, a Hindu epic; Kalki is slated to be born in "the village of Sambhala, in a pious brahmin dwelling" and reinstate Brahminical supremacy by purging Buddhist and Jain influences.[9] The concept was reproduced extensively in the Puranas and linked with apocalyptic beliefs; however, none of these texts described Sambhala or gave precise location of the place.[10] Around late 11th century, Sambhala appears to have been mapped onto the eponymous geographic place of today with Yadavaprakasa's Vaijayanti kosha noting it to be around Mathura;[11] soon, it became a pilgrimage-spot for the Hindus with the Tīrtha-pratyāmnāyāḥ section in Smrtyarthasara, Madanaparijata, and a host of later texts noting Sambhalagrama to be a muktikṣetra i.e., a place of salvation.[12]
  2. ^ The Mughal Court was aware of Sambhal, Hari Mandir, and its sacred connotations for the Hindus. Abul Fazl, a court-historian of Akbar writing in the late 1500s, noted Sambhal to have a famed temple, called the Har Mandal; he also recorded a belief among Hindus about Kalki appearing among the descendants of the priests of the temple.[8][13] Mir’āt al-Makhlūqāt, an early seventeenth century text by Sufi ‘Abd al-Rahman Chishti, reproduced a similar account but with Islamic leanings — Allah would be born in a Brahmin household at Sambhal as Kalki and usher in the Judgement Day.[14] Sujan Rai Bhandari, writing in the late 17th century, noted the "Har Mandir" to be an "ancient" place of worship.[15]
  3. ^ William noted it to be the tomb of Babur.[17]
  4. ^ Given Mukhliṣ' and others' description of the mosque, about a century before him, Carlleyle's informers seem unreliable; further, Mukhlis had reproduced the inscription in his accounts.
  5. ^ Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, a historian of Mughal India, notes that early medieval mosques in India frequently had a provision for a chain to hang a lamp or lantern to provide light; such motifs cannot be assigned to particular religions.[20]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Asher, Catherine (1992). "The beginnings of Mughal architecture". Architecture of Mughal India. The New Cambridge History of India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9781139055635.
  2. ^ a b "Survey of Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal completed". The Siasat Daily. 2024-11-24.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Crane, Howard (1987). "The Patronage of Ẓahīr al-Dīn Bābur and the Origins of Mughal Architecture". Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 1: 101–102. ISSN 0890-4464.
  4. ^ a b c Nath, Ram (1982). History Of Mughal Architecture. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. pp. 103–104.
  5. ^ a b c Nevill, H. R. Moradabad - A Gazetteer. Delhi: Government of India. pp. 255, 257–259.
  6. ^ Burton-Page, John (2007). Michell, George (ed.). Indian Islamic Architecture: Forms and Typologies, Sites and Monuments. Brill. p. 27. ISBN 978-90-04-16339-3.
  7. ^ Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy: 1952–53. Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India. 1954. p. 98.
  8. ^ a b c d e Alam, Muzaffar; Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (2007). "Acculturation or Tolerance?: Inter-faith Relations in Mughal North India, c. 1750". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 33: 441, 445–446.
  9. ^ Eltschinger, Vincent (2020-07-20). "On some Buddhist Uses of the kaliyuga". In Wieser, Veronika; Eltschinger, Vincent; Heiss, Johann (eds.). Cultures of Eschatology: Empires and Scriptural Authorities in Medieval Christian, Islamic and Buddhist Communities. Vol. 1. De Gruyter. pp. 143–146. ISBN 978-3-11-059774-5.
  10. ^ Bernbaum, Edwin Marshall (1985). The Mythic Journey and its Symbolism: a Study of the Development of Buddhist Guidebooks to Sambhala in Relation to their Antecedents in Hindu Mythology (Thesis). University of California, Berkeley. p. 158-167, 188.
  11. ^ Oppert, Gustav, ed. (1893). The Vaijayantī of Yādavaprakāśa. Madras: Government of India. p. 37.
  12. ^ Salomon, Richard (1979). "Tīrtha-pratyāmnāyāḥ: Ranking of Hindu Pilgrimage Sites in Classical Sanskrit Texts". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 129 (1): 102–128. ISSN 0341-0137.
  13. ^ Jarrett, H.S. (tr.) Sarkar, Jadunath (Rev.) The Ain-I Akbari by Abu'l-Fazl Allami, Vol. II, Repr. 1989. Delhi. p. 283
  14. ^ Alam, Muzaffar (2012-06-01). "Strategy and imagination in a Mughal Sufi story of creation". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 49 (2): 166. doi:10.1177/001946461204900201. ISSN 0019-4646.
  15. ^ a b Sarkar, Jadunath (1901). The India of Aurangzib (topography, statistics, and roads) compared with the India of Akbar: with extracts from the Khulasatu-t-tawarikh and the Chahar Gulshan. Calcutta: Bose Brothers. pp. 16, 23.
  16. ^ Naqvi, Naveena (2020-10-01). "On the road: The novice munshi's view of inter-imperial North India". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 57 (4): 495. doi:10.1177/0019464620948416. ISSN 0019-4646.
  17. ^ a b Archer, Mildred (1969). British Drawings in the India Office Library, Vol. 2: Official and Professional Artists. London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office. p. 580.
  18. ^ a b c A.C.L., Carlleyle (1879). Report of Tours in the Central Doab and Gorakhpur in 1874–75 and 1875–76. Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India. pp. 25–26.
  19. ^ Prasad, Ganga (May 1873). "On Sambhal Inscriptions". Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal: 98–99.
  20. ^ Menon, Vandana (2024-12-10). "Sambhal: A history of violence". ThePrint. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
  21. ^ a b "Story of the 500-year-old Sambhal mosque: Competing histories, mythology, and legal fights". The Indian Express. 2024-11-29.
  22. ^ a b c d e "How Sambhal row was born, post 1878 suit dismissal, post 1976 tension, when a priest met some familiar names". The Indian Express. 2024-11-28. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  23. ^ "Uttar Pradesh: Court-Appointed Commissioner Surveys Mughal-Era Mosque Amid Claims of Ancient Hindu Temple". The Wire. 20 November 2024.
  24. ^ Debby Jain; Anmol Kaur Bawa (2024-11-29). "Sambhal Masjid: Supreme Court Asks Trial Court To Defer Proceedings Till Survey Order Is Challenged In HC, Keep Commissioner Report Sealed". Live Law.
  25. ^ "Sambhal mosque survey: SC asks Shahi Jama Masjid management to approach Allahabad HC, tells trial court to halt proceedings". The Indian Express. 2024-11-29.
  26. ^ "Past Continuous, Present Tense". Economic and Political Weekly. LIX (49): 7–8. 7 December 2024.
  27. ^ "Express view: Tragedy in Sambhal". The Indian Express. 2024-11-26. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  28. ^ "​Revanchist suits: The Hindu Editorial on the Shahi Jama Masjid". The Hindu. 2024-12-01. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2024-12-09. {{cite news}}: zero width space character in |title= at position 1 (help)
  29. ^ Nath, Ram (1991). Architecture & Site of the Baburi Masjid of Ayodhya: A Historical Critique. Jaipur: Historical Research Documentation Programme. p. 20. ISBN 8185105146.
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