Place · Bengal Sultanate capital · India
Pandua (Firozabad)
Also known as 14c Ilyas Shahi capital, Malda, Pandua, Pandua, Malda
The medieval sultanate capital of Bengal at Pandua (Hazrat Pandua, called Firozabad during its heyday) in Malda district, West Bengal, 10 kilometres north of Gaur. Pandua was the Bengal Sultanate capital from 1352 to 1452 under Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah and his successor Sikandar Shah (ruled 1358-1390). The complex includes the 1375 Adina Masjid built by Sikandar Shah (155m x 90m, the largest medieval mosque of the subcontinent when raised, deliberately scaled larger than the Delhi Sultan's mosques to assert Bengali autonomy), the 1425 Eklakhi tomb of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah (built from one lakh rupees, the largest pre-Mughal tomb in Bengal), and the 1584 Qutb Shahi Masjid. The 1452 shift of capital back to Gaur ended Pandua's political role. ASI protection since 1917.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 25.006, 88.135
Connections (2)
- Site withinShrinkhalā, Pandua
Shrinkhalā, Pandua sits inside Pandua (Firozabad) and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
- Site withinAdina Mosque, Pandua
Adina Mosque, Pandua sits inside Pandua (Firozabad) and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Pandua”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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