Bura Masjid, Guwahati

A Mughal structure caught in a time warp - Heritage/Bura Masjid

As you pass through the din and bustle of Ambari today, an imposing structure attracts your eyes and the sound of azanreminds you of the time. The building is the famous Bura Masjid of Guwahati. Nobody exactly knows how the name Bura Masjid originated. Old-timers say that there was an old pirwho used to offer regular prayers in this masjid and later died on its premises. Thenceforth, the place came to be known as Bura Piror Masjid. Others, however, suggest that people call it Bura Masjid because it is oldest in town. Another version traces the origin of the masjid to the days of Ahom king Rudra Singha. There is no doubt that this is the oldest mosque in Guwahati. In Purana Guwahati Nagarar Varnana, a descriptive account of old Guwahati published in 1885 in Assam Bandhu (edited by Gunabhiram Baruah), three masjids ' located in Solabeel, Machkhowa and Lakhtokia ' were mentioned. 'Of the three masjids, the one situated in Solabeel (now Ambari) is the oldest and known as Bura Masjid,' says Kumudeshwar Hazarika. The Treaty of Ghilajhari Ghat was signed on January 23, 1663, when the Mughals under Mirjumla compelled the Ahom king, Jayadhawj Singha to accept Delhi's vassalage. The humiliating terms of the treaty, including sending the king's daughter to the imperial court along with a dowry of 20,000 tolas of gold, 1,20,000 tolas of silver, 20 dressed elephants for the emperor (of which 14 would be tuskers), also led to ceding of a large territory of western Assam to the Mughals. By virtue of this treaty, parts of Kamrup, including Guwahati, came under Mughal occupation. Rashid Khan was made the fouzdar of Guwahati with a 10,000-strong Mughal army under his command. Later Syed Firuz Khan succeeded Rashid. It was then that the need was felt to construct a masjid in Guwahati for the soldiers to pray in. Guwahati remained under Mughal occupation till Lachit Barphukan defeated them in the battle of Itakhuli in 1667, and possibly it was during this time that the mosque was built. The theory gains ground since the grave of Aurangzeb's secondfauzdar exists on the premises of the masjid. In course of time, the original masjid was destroyed, but it was rebuilt in the 1850s on a plot of land donated by a widow. Since it was located in a fringe area of the town then, not many people visited it. Old Muslim residents preferred the Lakhtokia and Machkhowa masjids. But towards the beginning of the 20th century, the town began to expand and devotees started to settle in the former Company Bagan and Solabeel areas. The area came to be known as Hedayatpur and its residents began to throng the Bura Masjid. During the earthquake of 1857, the masjid was badly damaged and was rebuilt into a small Assam-type structure with brick foundation at the initiative of police officer Akhtar Hussain and contractor Ida Khan. When the old structure of the masjid tumbled down in the earthquake, the residents of the Hedayatpur locality collected every brick and constructed the new building with those. After Independence, chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi allotted a big plot of land adjacent to the mosque. Finally, in the 1980s, the mosque was reconstructed into the RCC structure that we see now. Today, members of many traditional Muslim families visit the mosque to pay salaam to the mehrab when they start a new venture or go abroad or take an important decision.