Lat Masjid, Dhar

The Lat Masjid, or Pillar Mosque, of Dhar was built in 1405 by Dilawar Khan as a Friday mosque, marking his break with Delhi and the start of the Malwa Sultanate. It is a Monument of National Importance.

A large courtyard is framed by post-and-lintel arcades, and the four-bay prayer hall has a dome over the mihrab and a raised platform that probably served as a royal gallery. Some pillars and lintels were made for the mosque and others reused from older buildings, and the gatehouse follows an eclectic style also found at Gwalior, Datia and Chanderi. The mosque is named after the iron pillar, or lat, now lying in pieces in the garden. It bears no date or patron; Henry Cousens thought it was made under a later Paramara king, and it broke when Bahadur Shah of Gujarat tried to carry it off in the 16th century. Akbar left a Persian inscription on it.