Dada Harir Roza
Ahmedabad, India
The roza (rawza) of Dada Harir or Bai Harir is a mosque-tomb complex in the Asarwa neighborhood of Ahmedabad, just north of the Delhi Gate and old city center. The complex includes a mosque and tomb (described here), as well as a stepwell (vav), for which it is most famous. The well is dated to ca. 1500/906 AH while the style of the mosque, reminiscent of the nearby Miyan Khan Chishti Masjid, suggests that it was built in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth/late ninth or early tenth century AH.

The mosque is a shallow rectangular building enclosed by walls on the north, south, and west (qibla) sides, while the east side serves as the main facade. The east facade is dominated by a grand archway framed by two ornately decorated minarets that take the form of engaged octagonal columns rising to the height of the facade and ending in a bracketed cornice. Flanking the minarets on either side are first a smaller archway and window, and then a triple-archway.

The interior comprises five domed bays running parallel to the qibla that correspond to the division of the facade described above. The central dome is larger than the two flanking it on either side, and rises above the rest over a clerestory level. These domed bays are separated from one another by two pairs of pillars that also serve as supports to the dome. In the qibla wall behind each domed bay is a mihrab flanked by two windows. The side walls of the prayer hall are equipped with doors.

The tomb of Dada Harir is a separate building situated at the north end of the mosque. It takes the form of a domed square pavilion featuring a central, enclosed dome chamber bounded by an veranda-ambulatory one bay deep. The columns supporting the veranda are ornately carved with brackets at the top, and the corner bays are surmounted by small domes. The central chamber on which the dome rests rises much higher than the surrounding veranda.

Sources

Burgess, James. The Muhammadan Architecture of Ahmadabad. Part II, 7-9. London: W. Griggs and Sons, 1905.


Location
Ahmedabad, India
Images & Videos
Associated Names
Site Contains
Events
late 15th-early 16th/late 9th-early 10th century AH
Variant Names
Dada Harir Mosque and Tomb
Dada Harir Masjid
Building Usages
funerary
religious