In a region where Muslims have lived since well before the 16th century, the real question is why the remains of more ancient mosques have not been found.
In Goa, one is used to history lessons from the most unlikely of sources but that honour is now being extended to architecture as well. The latest wisdom is that the old Safa Masjid in Central Goa’s Ponda cannot have originally been a mosque. The reason offered by self-proclaimed experts is that talis, or water tanks, of the sort visible at Safa Masjid were built only at Hindu temples.
Mosques originated in Arab lands and Arab lands “had no water”, so there is no question of mosques having water tanks, they contend. Only Hindu temples had tanks, which means that that the Safa Masjid was originally a Hindu temple.1
As if that wasn’t enough, Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar in the wake of the Gyanvapi fracas in Varanasi declared that the Archaeological Survey of India must search for “shivlings in Goa’s destroyed temples”.
Even so, this latest attack on the Safa Masjid has a positive side: it has served as a reminder of the unique, and sadly overlooked architecture of the Goan mosque.2
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- 1. This kind of hate-inciting talk has become run of the mill these days. Indeed, if there was a competition for producing divisive rhetoric, these newly minted architectural experts would be beaten hollow by cabinet ministers in Goa’s Bharatiya Janata Party government, who seem to have no current challenges to deal with, given Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s promises ad nauseum to restore “Hindu temples destroyed by the Portuguese”.
- 2. Contrary to the claims of these self-proclaimed experts, the architectural elements of the Safa Masjid are not unusual, nor is it the only mosque of its kind. In Goa itself, and less than 20 km away from the Safa Masjid, stands a remarkably similar complex on the banks of the Mandovi river in the village of Surla – the beautiful Surla Tar Masjid.
