Jama Masjid, Adoni

The Jama Masjid stands in the town of Adoni, below the hill fort, and is the chief building left by the Bijapur governors of the place. The Bellary gazetteer (1904) says that “as the inscribed panels on its façade show”, it was built by Siddi Masud Khan.¹ He was governor of Adoni from 1662 to 1687.¹ The gazetteer calls the mosque “the finest piece of Muhammadan architecture in the district”.¹

The Imperial Gazetteer (1908) describes it as “the beautiful Jama Masjid” and “one of the finest mosques in the Presidency”.² See the Adil Shahis of Bijapur.

Date and building

Fifteen black stone slabs are built into the mosque’s fine façade (front).³ On them are carved, in Persian, “praises of the mosque and its builder”.³ Several verses give “the date of its completion as 1079 Hijri (24th June 1666 to 12th June 1667)”.³ The gazetteer explains that the date is given as a chronogram, in which the numerical values of letters add up to the year.³

The building “is stated to have cost two lakhs and to have taken two years and nine months to erect”.⁴³ The Imperial Gazetteer also gives the cost as two lakhs.² It says that Masud used “materials from several neighbouring Hindu temples which he had destroyed”.²

The mosque stands within a walled court, entered by a gateway facing it, with the usual pool for washing before prayer in front. Inside are two doorways carved in black stone, and paintings in geometrical and floral designs.³ An archaeological report of 1886, quoted in the gazetteer, calls them “highly executed”.³ It says their style is “met with in many Muhammadan buildings in the North of India, but more seldom in the south”.³

In the court are two mantapams (pillared halls) on polished black stone pillars of Chalukyan design.³ From the cornice hang long chains, each carved from a single piece of green stone.³ Local tradition and manuscripts say these were taken from the Chalukyan temple at Peddatumbalam, twelve miles to the north.³ Francis added in a note that “the custodians of the mosque would not allow me to enter it”.³

Traditions

A tradition says that the last of the Bijapur Sultans sent a gift to Sidi Masaud Khan.³ It was “a stone slab or tray on which were borne a thousand pieces of gold for the mosque”.³ The stone was built into the mosque and “is still shown”.³ The money was spent on decorating the building.³

Another tradition is recorded in manuscripts kept by the khatib (preacher) of the mosque.¹⁵ It says that the Mughal general Ghazi-ud-din Khan failed to take Adoni by force.¹⁵ He then “brought him to his knees by training his guns upon it”.¹⁵ According to this story Masud, “who held the building dearer than his life, surrendered to save it”.¹⁵ The Imperial Gazetteer repeats the story, dating the expedition to 1686.²

A mistaken photograph

Francis noted that “a photograph of it is given in Fergusson’s Bijapur Architecture”.³ He quoted Meadows Taylor’s description of the mosque as “a fine specimen of the florid architecture of the period”.³ Taylor called it “more elegant perhaps, than any building of its kind in Bijapur itself”, with Hindu touches in its balconies and minaret panels.³

Henry Cousens wrote the Archaeological Survey’s volume on Bijapur (1916).⁶ He wrote that the 1866 book by Taylor and Fergusson “is, unfortunately, full of blunders”.⁶ In it, he said, “a mosque at Lakshmeswar, in the Dharwar district, is described as being at Adoni, to the south of Raichur”.⁶ If Cousens is right, the photograph and Taylor’s remarks quoted by Francis do not show the Adoni mosque at all.

Footnotes

1. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Bellary (1904), p. 196 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 452 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Francis, Bellary (1904), p. 200 and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

4. Francis, Bellary (1904), p. 199 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

5. Francis, Bellary (1904), p. 197 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Henry Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (Archaeological Survey of India, Imperial Series, Vol. XXXVII, 1916), Preface, p. xi (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³