The First Mosque of India

The first mosque built in India after the Islamic domination started was at what today is known as the Qutub complex. The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque is situated right at the based of the Qutub Minar. It is a huge compound with pillared gallieries around it. One one side are huge walls with corbelled arches and the famous ‘rust free’ iron pillar stands at the center of the compound.

But if you look closely at the walls and the pillars of the mosque, you can confuse it to be a temple. The place is said to have housed 27 temples which were then destroyed to build the mosque. The evidence is quite visible. Idols are not part of the Islamic religion and these idols are found in plenty in this compound – most of them with their faces chopped off.

The destruction of the temples may have been an act of iconoclasm but the Qutub complex and the Mehrauli area is quite interesting in the way that it has been the favorite of dynasties right from Tomars and Prithiviraj Chauhan to the Britishers.