Asafi Masjid, Bara Imambara, Lucknow

With the decline of Mughal dynasty, the era of Nawabs was started in Awadh during the early days of 18th century. Faizabad was the capital of Awadh. Asaf Ud Daula, the fourth Nawab shifted the capital from Faizabad to Lucknow. Asaf Ud Daula decided to decorate Lucknow with numerous architectures so that his capital city becomes more beautiful than that of Mughal. With his patronage, Bara Imambara was established. Inside Bara Imambara complex, he planned to establish a gigantic mosque. On 1784, Asafi Masjid was constructed. This is a Shia Mosque.

 

Apparently Asafi Masjid follows the Mugal Architectural genre. Most interesting thing of this structure is that the mosque is built of various interlocking lakhuri bricks laid in lime mortar and designes executed in stucco, which mostly confine to floral, geometrical or arabesque patterns. These accentuate the florid nature of ornamentation, which are the characteristics of the Nawabi Architecture. We can say, the Nawabi Architectural genre starts from Asafi Masjid.

 

[More architectural detail will be coming on August, 2017 in my blog: amlan-chakraborty.blogspot.in/]

 

Done