Mosques of the Malabar: A Tradition in Timber

Mosques of the Malabar: a tradition in timber
by Smita Dalvi

First published in ‘Architecture, Time, Space and People’, a journal published by the Council of Architecture, India. [Vol 6 Issue 1] in January 2006.

I. Many Spaces
In the heart of Kozhikode (Calicut) lies a Muslim quarter called Kuttichira, home to the Mappila community. Centered on the sacred Kuttichira tank, you encounter several mosques, all traditionally built in timber.

Here is the Mishkaal Palli, the largest with roofs at four levels. It sits in close association with the tank. Not very far is the Jamaat Palli, the Friday mosque, on the other side of the tank. Smaller in size and at awkward angle to the narrow street, it proclaims an exact orientation to Mecca. Its front porch is marked by a heavily carved gable; matched by an exquisite timber ceiling, with floral, geometric and calligraphic motifs. It has two light wells, one over the ablution tank and another inside the prayer hall. The forms of the light wells remind us of the tight courtyards of the domestic Nallakettu with roof overhangs sloping down from all four sides.

Jamaat Palli

Further down the same street is the Muchhandi Palli, one among the oldest mosques. Here too are ornately carved ceilings and gables. Its mimbar is famous for epigraphical inscriptions attesting to its unique history. It is fronted by a small chowk where the street widens out before merging with other narrow lanes. During Ramzan, this outdoor space is covered with plastic and bamboo canopies. Ramzan is special in Kuttichira.  The evenings come alive when men, women and children turn out on the streets to break their fasts with savories sold in little shops.

Hydross Palli

In contrast, the Hydross Palli is modest in size and fits snugly into the urban fabric, with a front verandah as an intermediary space. After taking a round in Kuttichira, your explorations will lead you to the ancient Thali temple, with many architectural precedents for what you saw earlier.

All these mosques display the craft of construction in timber. Typical curved wooden screens light and ventilate the upper rooms.  Gables are reserved for special attention with intricately carved details painted blue, green and yellow.  The shapes of wooden pillars and brackets and the nail-less joinery of rafters all bear testimony to an age-old expertise.

II. Trade along the Malabar
The architecture of Islam in Kerala is generally ignored in books on Indo-Islamic architecture. Islam arrived on the Malabar Coast five centuries before its political domination in northern India. It almost certainly had early converts here before anywhere outside Arabia. This is not surprising, considering the proximity of the two coastlines and existing trade links from pre-Islamic times. A short detour from Kuttichira is Beypore on the coast, where today’s shipyards are still busy building dhows commissioned by Arabs from the Gulf. Watching them at work, one gains an understanding into centuries old connections. Arab merchants traded Indian spice with other parts of the known world. A number of them set up households in the Malabar as well, and it is through them that Islam’s message reached India.[1]   According to legend, Malik-ibn-Dinar, a contemporary of the prophet Muhammad was amongst the earliest of the converted to land at Crangannur (Cannanore) along with his family. They presented themselves in the court of Cheraman Perumal, a Chera king, in AD642-643 or Hijri 22.[2]  Malik-ibn-Dinar built the first mosque there. This was followed by eleven more along the coast. [3]  These mosques are some of the oldest to be established, not only in India but also in the Islamic world. It is interesting to compare this with the story of Mar Thom: St. Thomas, one of Christ’s apostles, who according to legend, arrived on Kerala’s shores in AD52 and established a church.

Islam spread in Kerala through migration from Arabia and the gradual conversion of native populations. By the twelfth century AD, there were at least ten major settlements of Muslims distributed from Kollam (Quilon) in the south to Mangalore in the north. From around this time, the Zamorins ruled Calicut, where Arab merchants shipped pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and ginger. Each settlement developed with a mosque as its center.[4]   Mosque building in Kerala reached its zenith between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries- the period of Arab supremacy in maritime trade with the Malabar.[5]

III. A Culture of Influences
The many traditional mosques in Kerala are different from those in the imperial and provincial Indo-Islamic styles throughout the sub-continent. Religious architecture in Kerala emerged from domestic traditions and mosques were no exception. Like Kerala’s timber temples, both take from an architecture evolved from local climate, materials, culture and traditions of craft. In traditional dwellings like Nalakettus and Ekasalas, the concerns of torrential rain and the need for ventilation found expression in remarkable roof and wall elements, executed in abundantly available timber. Local artisans well versed with the craft constructed mosques under instructions of Muslim religious heads.  Their requirements were functional and simple. The existing models for places of worship were temple gateways (gopura) or theatre halls (koothambalam), and these were adapted for the new religion.

Gopura of Thali Temple in Kozhikode

 IV. Tradition in Timber
A traditional mosque in the Malabar comprises of a large prayer hall with a mihrab on the western wall and enclosed verandahs on the sides that serve as spillover space. A front verandah facing the street becomes a transition space that often leads to a front hall preceding the main prayer hall. An ablution tank is accommodated on one side. The entire structure is raised on a tall plinth/base, similar to the adhisthana of a temple. The walls are made of laterite. The tiled roof is at multiple levels, accommodating subsidiary spaces with elaborately carved gables. On occasion, the mosque is placed within an enclosure, accessed by gateways akin to Gopuras.

The structural system for the halls is of timber posts, beams and brackets. Often the columns are square or octagonal as in mandapa pillars. The roof is often covered with sheets of copper, incorporating finials in the ridge, borrowing form the temple stupi. Nakhudas or ship builders sculpted the mimbars in many mosques, representing the very best skills in woodcarving.

Detail of Odathi Palli in Thalassery

Most of the notable mosques are in northern Kerala, on the Malabar coast, in Kozhikode, Thalassery and Kasargod. Several similar examples can also be found in the Mallapuram  area. The mosque at Thazhathangdy, Kottayam is an example from south Kerala. If the mosques in Kuttichira are modelled on the domestic architecture of the Malabar and that of the temple gopuras, the Odathipalli at Thalassery is based on the kuthambalam. It rises on a striking adhisthana and its copper sheeted roof is adorned with exquisitely carved stupis. The mosque has gateways on the east and south and has carved interiors in wood. In Kasargod, one of the best-preserved mosques is that of Malik Dinar. Its clearly delineated storeys are like a large town house with a front porch. Its prayer hall is constructed with heavy sections of timber resting on wide pillars with rich surface carving. The mihrab is further screened from the hall as if to create an inner sanctum.

Palli at Thazhathangady, Kottayam

Many of the oldest established mosques are still extant today, albeit, with repairs and remodelling, as is the way with wooden buildings. They display a form of religious architecture that is non-monumental. They fit snugly into the urban fabric instead of towering above it. Other than functionally determined forms, they show no need to proclaim a religious identity. This architecture was the need of religion, but the product was of local culture and context. This pattern can be seen in other parts of the western coast, especially in Konkan where religious architecture of different faiths display a similar non-monumentality and a common language based on aesthetics of timber.

V. Engineered Symbols take over Traditions
In recent times, the traditional architectural features of the old mosques are in the process of being replaced. The use of arches, domes and minarets are projected as the only legitimate symbols of Islamic culture. A lot of this comes from a visual vocabulary specific to new mosques fuelled by a rising affluence- built in modern materials disregarding local sensibilities. Newly constructed mosques display a larger than life language without concern for the classical proportions of the very same elements. A mosque on the outskirts of Kuttichira is a typical example of this trend. Similar structures are coming up all over Kerala, modifying or mutilating old mosques built in the traditional fashion.

A new Mosque on the periphery of Kuttichira

It would be interesting to study this phenomenon from a socio-economic viewpoint: are the cultural forces that once determined the form of traditional mosques no longer operative? A community’s aspirations expressed in an assertive distinct identity other than one accepted over the centuries has political and economic causes. Architectural choices made by communities of the Malabar are significant, as they point to a rapidly transforming social structure in the light of urbanization and globalization.

Notes:

 1. H. Sarkar in ‘Monuments of Kerala’ published by the ASI in 1992 refers to the flourishing ports of the Chera country having maritime activity with Arabia and China.

 2. This legend is corroborated by Dr. G.S. Khwaja of the Archeological Survey of India, in his paper at the 24th epigraphical congress in Thrissur. His research is based on an epigraph found on a wooden lintel in the mosque at Kasargod.

 3. T. P. Kutiyammu in  ‘Splendours of Kerala’, Marg Publications, 1979, has listed these early mosques. Even though mosques exist on these sites today, none of them has retained its original form or size.

 4. H. Sarkar in ‘Monuments of Kerala’ refers to the accounts by Arab travelers in 9th and 10th century.

 5.  Dr. G.S. Khwaja. Epigraphical data is recorded from the tombstones with dates, inscriptions of gifts and donations on mosques, and of renovations of mosques.