Shankarpasha Mosque
Shankarpasha Mosque a single domed sultanat mosque situated at Shankarpasha in sadar upazila of Habiganj district. It is a square building measuring 21 A9 5 A9 A9 a side with a front veranda 5 A9 4 A9 A9 in breadth. It appears to be built sometime between 1494 and 1499 AD during the reign of sultan Alauddin Husayn Shah.
The mosque has four octagonal engaged corner towers, and two other similar engaged towers each on the north and south walls. As a part of later rennovation, the curved battlements have been straightened into horizontal parapets, and the corner towers have been extended beyond the parapet with kalasa (pitcher) motif on the top. The original dome which fell much earlier, has later been replaced with a flat arched roof, supported on iron joists.
The mosque has three doorways with cusped arches on the east, the middle one being wider and higher than the others. Two other entrances with similar cusped arches provide entry to the front veranda from the north and south sides. On the eastern facade at the ends, there are three panels one above the other, two panels in the same line over the doorways, one large sized panel above two normal sized ones in line between the doorways. The chain-and-bell motif has developed into a conventionalised floral design suspended from a chain-like branch of tree. The spandrels show a crisp tree motif with inter-twining branches crowned with rosettes.
The mihrab of the mosque is profusely decorated. The rectangular frame bordering the mihrab shows decorations consisting of four or eight petalled flowers within small rectangles framed by intersection of wavy lines. The brick pillars supporting the cusped arch of the niche are changed into vertical row of decorations, rosettes alternating with framed four-petalled flowers.
The mosque, as a whole, is a fine example of innovative craftsmanship, taste and likes of the local designers, their originality in the arrangement and ornamentation of the facade and the mihrab, which however varies from the contemporary Gaur style and betrays the lavish ornamentation of the Husayn Shahi period. The mosque still retains its old decorations. [Muazzam Hussain Khan]
