Saturday, June 9, 2012

Archeological Place: Dewanbagh Mosque

Dewanbagh Mosque a single domed mosque, situated at village Dewanbag in Bandar upazila of the district of Narayanganj. It is also known as Manwar Khan Bagh (pronounced by local people as Monoharkhar Bagh). The mosque is situated about three kilometers southward from the Kanchpur Shitalaksya Bridge on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. It was built in the pre-Mughal period, probably in the 16th century. It is a square building with engaged octagonal corner towers that extend beyond the parapet, and verandah on the east. The mosque originally had three domes over the verandah. These have been dismantled. The dome is carried on squinches. There are three entrances, one each on the east, north and south sides with semicircular arches, although their original shapes have been plastered over. The prayer chamber measures 10.8-meter square outside and 6.69-meter square inside. The mihrab has a pointed arch carved out of a piece of black stone with trefoil cusps. Similar cusped stone arches of mihrabs are also noticed in the fifteenth century mosque at Muazzampur (1433-36), Fath Shah's mosque (1484) at Mograpara, and the sixteenth century mosque at Goaldi (1519). Its mihrab arch and its thick walls are indicative of its antiquity.

The mosque has been renovated several times and further extended in the east by a veranda. All original features have been plastered over in the exterior. It is presently being used as a Jami mosque.