Nakhoda Mosque

The Nakhoda Masjid is a Sunni mosque, located in Kolkata, in the state of West Bengal, India. The mosque is situated in the Chitpur area of the Burrabazar business district in Central Kolkata, at the intersection of Zakaria Street and Rabindra Sarani. Completed in 1926, it is the principal mosque for Kolkata and it is affiliated with the Hanafi school.

Architecture

The mosque was built as an imitation of the mausoleum of Mughal emperor Akbar at Sikandra, Agra by Kutchi Memon Jamat, a small Sunni community from Kutch.

With a capacity of 10,000 worshippers in the mosque's prayer hall, the Nakhoda Mosque is the largest mosque in West Bengal and eastern India. Before 1854 there used to be two different mosques at the present site. The mosque was named Nakhoda meaning mariner.

Reconstruction work started in 1926 and was completed in 1935. All the prominent Cutchi memons of Calcutta contributed for the new mosque, and Abdul Rahim Osman was the biggest donor. The total cost incurred for the construction was 1,500,000 Indian rupees in 1926. The contract for rebuilding the musjid was given to Mackintosh Burn & Co., a British engineering company.

The mosque has three domes and two minarets which are high. There are an additional 25 smaller minarets which range from high.

The gateway is an ersatz of the Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri. For this purpose granite stones were brought from Tolepur.

Gallery

Nakhoda Mosque

Bron en licentie