Viyayapura, or Bijapur at it is popularly known, is famous for it's Gol Gombuz. Some tourists venture further to Ibrahim Rauza and Bara Kaman. But, there are many more monuments in and around Vijayapura, which are lesser known and are rarely frequented.
Amidst the hustle bustle of the town, there is a quiet corner, where stands the oldest mosque of Vijayapura, mostly ignored by the tourists. Even many of the local people are not aware of it's significance. Known as the Karim-ud-din mosque, it looks more like a Hindu temple. It was built in 1320 AD under the orders of Karim-ud-din, who was the then governor of Bijapur. Incidentally, Karim-ud-din has been the son of Malik Kafur who had been the General of Alauddin Khilji, and was instrumental in bringing a large part of the Deccan under Muslim rule.
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| Karim-ud-din mosque at Vijayapura |
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| Curvings in the mosque in Chalukyan temple style |
While construction of mosques and other monuments by the rulers were not uncommon, why was this mosque constructed like a Hindu temple? It is said that there were no architects for designing mosques were available in the region in those times. Karim-ud-din mosque was designed by one Revaya, in the style of Hindu temples that had been the only places of worship he had been familiar with. The mosque was assembled from an assortment of debris of nearby broken Hindu temples (handiwork of Malik Kafur?), which give it an unmistakable "Hindu" look. However, the statues of gods and humans seem to have been carefully chipped off. By some alternate theory, the place had been an Agrahara (Hindu college) which has been converted to a mosque by the orders of Malik Kafur. Whichever theory may be true, it had been the principal mosque of Bijapur for about 150 years till Jami Masjid was built during the early years of Adil Shahi dynasty.
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| The outer wall of Karim-ud-din mosque |
Our local taxi driver who took us around in Vijayapura did not know about this mosque. We could locate the place with some difficulty, with the help of the Google map. When we visited the place, we did not find a single soul, except an old lady who kept the place clean and lighted some incense at the tomb of a saint housed in the premises (possibly at a later date). The ancient structure had been supported with scaffolding (by ASI) with no repair-work in sight. It appears that what could be a very significant historical monument is not given enough importance and is left to decay.
