Tughluq Shāhī mosque, Udaypur, Madhya Pradesh explained

The Tughluq Shāhī mosque is a small mosque directly west of the Nīlakaṇṭheśvara temple, Udaypur, Madhya Pradesh. It was constructed in the time of Muḥammad bin Tughluq (1325-51).^[1]

The building is part of the protected monument of national importance under the jurisdiction of the Archaeological Survey of India, number N-MP-289 in the List of Monuments of National Importance in Madhya Pradesh/East.

The mosque consists of a covered prayer hall, built on the temple platform. It incorporates a number of older pillars, and preserves the balcony seats with sloping backs (kakṣāsna) that once surrounded most of the temple complex. A small arched mihrab was added to the western wall at the time construction.^[2]

The mosque was built in the 14th century, as testified by two inscriptions on small arched gates still standing either side of the Śiva temple.^[3] These inscriptions date 739 (i.e. 1338–39 CE).^[4]

Notes and References

1. Peter A. Jackson, The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History (Cambridge: University Press, 1999).
2. A. Cunningham, Archaeological Survey of India Reports, vol. 10, p. 68; D. R. Patil, The Descriptive and Classified List of Archaeological Monuments in Madhya Bharat (Gwalior: Dept. of Archaeology, Madhya Bharat Government, 1952): no. 1692; Indian Archaeology: A Review (1983-84), p. 56.
3. For an old photograph, see Archaeological Survey of India. (2024). Udaypur उदयपुर (Madhya Pradesh). Entrance to the courtyard with Persian and Arabic inscription, dated in the mid-fourteenth century CE. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10573804.
4. For the inscriptions, see Syed Abdur Rahim, Arabic, Persian and Urdu Inscriptions of Central India: A Topographical List (New Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 2000), p. 122 and R. Saksena, "Muslim Epigraphy in the Gwalior State," The Indian Antiquary 55 (1926): 4-5; correction in Z. A. Desai, ARIE (1964-65), p. 23