Gorar Mosque
Shailkupa, Bangladesh

The Gorar Mosque is locally considered to be contemporary with Khan Jahan Ali style mosques of Khalifatabad and located at historic Mohammadabad city, present day Barobazar, Jessore.  Based on architectural style the date of construction can be estimated to be fifteenth century. 

The Gorar Mosque is a square cell with porch style Sultanate mosque, that is; the mosque has a single dome central chamber with a three-domed porch. The mosque is situated about 800 feet to the west of the Pir Pukur Mosque.

The mosque is a rectangle of 46'6" x 36'4" externally while internally it has a square plan of 32'0" x 20'0". The main prayer hall is a single chamber, roofed over by a larger hemispherical dome with a porch roofed over by three smaller domes. The eastern façade has three advanced framed arched openings on the porch which leads to the prayer hall. There are three mihrabs, each aligned with the three entrances at east and the central portion of the qibla wall is projected westward. The northern and southern façades have two openings each; one at the center of main prayer hall while the other one is for the porch. Stylistically this kind is known as Khan Jahan Ali architecture, commonly found in and around south-western part of Bangladesh.

The rectangular structure is buttressed by six corner octagonal turrets. These turrets end at the level of parapet walls and ribbed with jali and floral motifs. The façades are capped by curvilinear cornices of pre-Mughal type. Exterior façades are ribbed with jali and betel leaf motifs arranged horizontally. The central entrance at the eastern façade is larger than the side ones which are slightly narrower and dwarfish. The arched openings are framed with terracotta design of jali motif. There are three terracotta multi cusped arched mihrabs in the qibla wall; the central one is larger and the flanking ones narrower and dwarfish similar to the front façade.

The mosque was restored and repaired by the Department of Archaeology, Bangladesh and is now a protected monument.


Sources:

Asher, C. B. Inventory of Key Monuments. In The Islamic Heritage of Bengal, George Michell, editor. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 1984.

Hasan, P. Sultans and Mosques: The Early Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007.

Islam, I., and Noblea, A. Mosque Architecture in Bangladesh: The Archetype and Its Changing Morphology. Journal of Cultural Geography, 17(2), 5-25, 1998.
Location
Shailkupa, Bangladesh
Images & Videos
Associated Names
Associated Collections
Style Periods
Dimensions
Rectangle of 46'6" x 36'4"
Variant Names
Gorar Masjid
Alternate
Building Usages
religious