Mosque and shrine, Sherpur
Barduari Mosque at Garjaripaগড়জরিপা বারো দুয়ারী মসজিদ
- Time needed
- Half an hour to an hour with the tombs.
The twelve-doored mosque of Garjaripa in Sreebardi, on the site of the old fort of Garh Jaripa: by tradition built by Jarip Shah centuries ago, buried by an earthquake, dug out and rebuilt in 1963, and now a five-storey mosque beside the Bara Dighi.
At a glance
- Doors
- Twelve: nine east, two south, one north
- Rebuilt
- 1963, on walls found about ten feet down
- The fort
- Garh Jaripa, taken by Majlis Khan Humayun in 1491
About
Garjaripa, in Sreebardi about 10 km north of Sherpur town, is the oldest named place in the district. The Koch king Dalip Samanta had his earthen fort here, Garh Dalipa, on the edge of the Kamarupa kingdom; in 1491 a Bengal sultanate army under Majlis Khan Humayun took it and renamed it Garh Jaripa. The tombs of Jarip Shah, Shah Kamal (1644) and Sher Ali Gazi, and the mosque, are what remain of that history; the fort itself is a memory in the shape of the land.
The mosque takes its name from its twelve doors, nine on the east, two on the south and one on the north. Tradition credits it to Jarip Shah and gives it anything from six to eight hundred years. Locals say an earthquake buried it; in the 1960s a maulana from Jamalpur dreamed where it lay, the walls were found about ten feet down, and in 1963 the mosque was rebuilt on them. It has since grown to five storeys with room for three or four thousand people, and the Eid congregation here is one of the district's largest. The Bara Dighi beside it is old too.
Come for the place and the story rather than old masonry: little of the original is visible, but the site, the tanks and the tombs together are Sherpur's beginnings.
Getting there: From Sherpur town a CNG or bus on the Sreebardi road to Garjaripa, about 10 km; the mosque is a short way off the road.
Things to do
- Count the twelve doors, then walk round the Bara Dighi.
- Find the tombs of Jarip Shah and Shah Kamal nearby.
Good to know
- A working mosque with a big Friday crowd; go between prayer times and dress modestly.
