Nakhoda Masjid, The Principal Mosque of kolkata

In Kolkata there are many Mosques that are very famous and all have unique qualities and features to stand out among all the others. Today’s date is 20^th November and I am writing about this so I would definitely like to refer the recent judgement passed on Babri Masjid, Why? I am not trying to put my point of view on this, as in this blog it’s not important. But I am referring about this to tell you that this is the time that I have chosen for visiting the principal Mosque of Kolkata, Nakhoda Masjid( Masjid is an Arabic word for Mosque which means larger collection or gatherings) and as per the meaning suggests this particular Mosque is so huge that it can accommodate 10,000 people very easily.

Nakhoda Masjid comes in the list of Must visit places of Kolkata but you will hardly get a video or an article that talks about it in terms of the other must visit places. Reason is Unknown. But it’s situated in a very common and renowned place of Kolkata Chitpur, Barabazar Market which is actually the biggest local market of Kolkata. But today we will talk about only Nakhoda. Generally, the place remains always crowded, so the best time of visiting Nakhoda is from 8:00AM to 11:00AM.

The day I had gone for visiting the place, I was not quite sure how they would behave and I personally was too concerned so that unintentionally I would not hurt anybody’s emotions. Though I had done all my researches before going there still I was not sure. The time I reached that spot, at about 8:45AM in the morning. I was standing outside looking at the beautiful structures suddenly I noticed at the entrance there are different clocks which must be showing different times of places but what was quite shocking for me that I knew the Mosque was founded as per the history in the year 1920 and on that time this kind of updated model was quite out of the box. It was funded by Abdur Rahim Osman, a leader of the Kutchi Memon Jama’at and its also reported that Nakhoda meaning is Mariner which was probably the profession of him. 

If you enter through this entrance first the thing that will attract you is the Ablution pool. And in your left side there is a big space where people do their daily prayers.

The gateway is a counterpart of the Buland Darwaza which is in Fatehpur Sikri. For this purpose granite stones were brought to Kolkata from Tolepur. It has three domes and two minarets which are 151 feet high. There are an additional 25 smaller minarets.

If you are new in Kolkata then it should be in your list of top 10 must visit places in Kolkata. I am sure it wouldn’t disappoint you, its structures, the way it’s made is worthy of each and everyone’s praises. The creation will definitely soothe your eyes and you will be mesmerized.

How to reach the spot:

You can get on to a train(main line) and get down at DumDum Station from there you can avail metro and try to get down at Mahatma Gandhi Road, From there it’s 6 minutes of walking.

Or, you can avail train of main line, get down at Sealdah, from there You need to get onto a bus which is going towards Howrah via Chitpur/Barabazar, you can get down at Chitpur and You will be able to reach your Destination.

And there are Uber, Ola & other cab services also available which you can easily avail.