Keelakarai Masjid

Many researchers have different opinions about the first mosque in India. Most of them say it is the Cheraman Perumal Mosques of Kerala. Researchers like Dr. Nandini Krishna say that Keelakarai's old "Meen Kada Palli" was built a year before Cheraman Perumal mosque.

Pallivaasil of Keelakarai. Photo credits to author

Keelakkarai (the shore down under) is a remote and dormant village near Ramanathapuram and Ervadi in Tamil Nadu. Once, In the medieval period, it was one of the flourishing towns of the south where the traders who came through the Cyclone used to visit. As most of the traders were Arabs, many local populations also converted to Islam as many people did in Calicut of Kerala. This caused the formation of a large community of  Tamil Muslims in the territory.

Keelakarai has a lot of small islands or  theevu in Tamil. Viz. *Appa theevu, Nallathanni theevu, Thalari theevu, upputhanni theevu, Musal theevu,*and the prominent Kachcha theevu and there are many spots with blue water where the people always like to swim. Ibnu Bathootha, the famous Muslim traveller who visited this place called it “labbat Pattan” pattan maybe comes from the pattanamwhich means the town and labbat means Tamil Muslims which makes it the “the town of Tamil Muslims” he also noted that here is where the Arab traders live and it shocked me to see the Arabs living here as they live in their native place.

It was during a trip to Ervadi I remembered Keelakarai Mosque, I have already heard a lot of myths about this mosque as they say it is built by the genie, and they left it without completing one pillar as the genies were gone when the Azan of Subah prayers was delivered. This myth was also the factor that prompted me to walk to this destination. I can still see the remnants of the old township here. The relatively spacious lane flanked by a lot of shops might be the luxurious city of the medieval time. But right now, I can only feel dead air there as I just barely found a shop  that was also selling less quality ice cream.

The Masjid here in Tamil Nadu is called “pallivaasi” as in Kerala it is called “palli” and the mosque of the keelakarai is called Palaiya pallivaasi. The old Juma masjid was called Meen Kada Palli which was constructed by those people who came from  Yemen as traders in the period of Pandyas of Madurai. The story behind the mosque alludes to the history of the pre-Islamic world. When the Persian king Khoshrau II ordered his governor  of Yemen Badhan Ibnu Sasaan to bring the prophet from Medina in 625CE.

Badhan sent two men to Medina to take the prophet to the court of the Khosrau. But the prophet refused to go and prophesied that Khosrau II had been overthrown and killed by his son Kavad II. When the delegates returned, they told Badhan about this prophecy which was found true, and Badhan converted to Islam immediately and requested the traders and Persian people which includes the traders of the Keelakarai to convert to Islam.

The royal corridor of Masjid. Credits to Dr Nandini

The mosque of Keelakarai was built in the model of the Chola temples and that was the same when it comes to the architecture of the south Indian mosques. They were not following Arabian architecture. Instead, they built temple architecture which was the architecture they used to have. Since,Islam does not provide any architecture for the mosques, they can be made in any way that the people do want.

The major beauty of Pallivaasal is the heavy stone beams carved beauty in different patterns. The entire structure is made out of stones and even the roof is also thatched with  stone blocks. The view of the corridor flanked by the well-designed pillars will give the royal feeling of being in a Darbar.

Outsidethe masjid,there is a tomb of famous Arabic poet Sadaqathullah Qahiri who was a renowned scholar among the Muslim community of south India and his works are still parts of the syllabus of many south Indian Madrassas and his poems are still sung in the Bhajanas of the Muslim community.

I was just surprised to know whose is tomb in front of the Mosque. When I asked one of the natives, they told it is only a dummy structure. I think it might be the part of the Chola architecture as it is similar to manyof Chola temple.