Jora Masjid

North towards Mirza Mohalla stands the Jora Masjid (the ‘twin mosque’) two identical domed mosques standing side by side, built in the seventeenth century. The Dewan Khana Masjid nearby is said to have been constructed by Kephayatulla, the Dewan of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, an east-facing three-domed structure of approximately 300 years’ standing. Together these mosques represent the Mughal administrative presence in the town and form the focal point of the annual Urs of the venerated saint Syed Shah Murshed Ali Alquadri, drawing devotees from across Bengal and Bangladesh. A striking contrast in the same neighbourhood: the dilapidated Brahmo Samaj Mandir near the Collegiate School, a silent witness to Midnapore's role as a major centre of the reformist Brahmo movement in the nineteenth century.