ABSTRACT
Among the mosques of the coastal towns of South India, the Ṣafā Masjid at Ponda, in the State of Goa, provides a somewhat curious and unusual example, as the mosque is neither entirely in the style of the buildings of the Muslim settlers of Malabar nor in the style of mosques of the Deccan, which included Ponda before it was taken by the Portuguese in 1763. 1 On one hand the mosque is set on a high plinth and has doors, windows and niches with pointed arches in what may be called the “Deccani” style, but the configuration of its prayer chamber surrounded by a colonnade, as well as the light structure of its wooden roof, conforms with the style of the Malabar mosques. Its exceptional form alone makes the building worthy of investigation, but even more so in view of its survival in an area long under the Portuguese, characterized as dedicated enemies of the Muslims and destroyers of Muslim buildings wherever they found them in South India. 2
