History

Patna, the capital of present-day Bihar, is the modern shape of “Patliputra”, a globally renowned city of the ancient era. It was Patrliputra, now known as Patna, which had the privilege of not only embracing the footprints of Budha and Mahavira but also experiencing the throb of the victorious army of the world-beater Alexander, the great. It is the same Patna whose grandeur has been spectacularly portrayed by the Greek ethnographer, diplomat and explorer, Megasthenes. It is the same Patna which has seen the tenacity and valor of Chandragupta Maurya and witnessed one of the greatest emperor of India, Ashoka, abandon his elegant imperial costume and become a Bodh Bhikshu (Buddhist mendicant). In the medieval period Patna was made memorable again by the significant contributions of the Mughal emperor, Shahjahan, whose governor Asif Khan started restructuring Patna of the Mughal era on its historical background. Asif Khan, who was the husband of Mumtaz Mahal’s elder sister Malika Bano, built a fort, an Eidgah (a place to perform Eid prayers) and a magnificent mosque. During his era many great scholars and Sufi saints came to Patna from different places and settled here. Peer Damariya, Shah Arzani and Shah Abul Barakat Muhammad Faaiz moved to Patna and got established here. That very year another family emerged on the panel of history whose leadership was in the hands of Mulla Meetan.

Patna city is that very part of Patna which masks Patliputra in its troughs. Several temples, mosques, repositories (Dargahs) and abbeys (khanqahs) in its narrow streets bear testimony to its glory of the ancient and the medieval periods. When Prince Azim, the grandson of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, became the Subedar of the northeastern region of India, he developed Patna as his headquarters. Pachchim Darwaza and Purab Darwaza in Patna city remind us of his times. These two Darwazas (doors) belonged to the fort of Patna. Situated in the Khwajekalan police station area, in front of Pachchim Darwaza and on the bank of the river Ganges, Meetan Ghat reminds us of the golden era when Patna was not only the administrative headquarters but also an important centre for spiritualism.

Meetanghat is correlated with the astounding scholar, great suphi and ideal spiritual seeker Mulla Meetan of the Aurangzeb era born during the reign of Shahjahan. His full name was Mulla Syed Badee-ud-Deen Alamgiri but he was famous as Mulla Meetan. Being proficient in all the contemporary disciplines of learning, he was noted among all the sages far and wide. That was why Mughal emperor Aurangzeb chose him as educator for his grandson Azeem. By that time, Mulla Meetan’s madrasa at Meetanghat had transformed into a university whose stateliness can be surmised even today by the splendid Jama Masjid here.

Mulla Meetan was not only a scholar and learned person of superior degree but also an enlightened sage of the Sufi ideology. He was profoundly associated with Silsila Shattaria, a popular Sufi Silsilah (order) of the Mughal era. He was proficiently conversant in the art of contemplation and meditation practised by Sufi saints. Sufi saints get skilled not only in conditioning their respiratory systems but also in holding breath for a longtime. Swimming was also included in the skills practised by Mulla Meetan. He was so well-versed in this art that he would sit cross-legged on the turbulent flow of the river Ganges and  swim to its other side opposite Patna and come back to Meetanghat in the same fashion.

Students from far and near places remained occupied all the day in acquiring higher education at Mulla Meetan’s madrasa. His madrasa had a distinction in the sense that Hindu students were also given equal opportunities and status with Muslim students in learning languages, philosophy, logic, sciences, arts, etiquettes and taking part in researches. Raja Ujagarchand Ulfat’s name, listed with Mulla Tahqueeque and Mulla Muhammad Hussain among the eminent disciples of his madrasa, bears testimony to the above fact.

Besides being expert in Arabic and Persian, Mulla Meetan was not only a scholar of Hindi and Urdu, but also a patron of these languages. His name “Meetan” denotes his proximate association with Hindi on one hand and his immense religious and cultural tolerance on the other.

Mulla Meetan’s Masjid (mosque) popularly known as ‘Jama Masjid Hazrat Mulla Meetan’ is an exquisite illustration of the architectural excellence of the Mughal age in India. This mosque has three domes and there are three doors at its front, i.e. the east and one door each on its right and left, i.e. the north and the south. The enormous domes of this mosque have great height and present an attractive view even from long distance. The main entry door in the east is higher and wider than the other two adjacent doors and looks magnificent. One of the main characteristics of this mosque is that it is the only double storey mosque of the Mughal period. Its ground floor, which may also be called geological floor, has quite amazing structural design. Its first feature is that it is air-conditioned. It is quite cool and soothing to the heart for one who comes here even in the scorching afternoon of summer. That too, it is all pure and natural. Its other feature is that it is sound-proof and the voice of a person reciting prayers loudly inside it is not heard from outside. The roof of the ground floor, on which the large structure of the upper storey is perched, is not made of any type of wood or iron. The materials used in constructing this roof were bricks and stuccos that were prepared those days with sand and lime etc. People visit here in large numbers everyday to see its elegant architectural design and other hallmarks.

Apart from Mulla Meetan’s Masjid and Madrasa there was a grand mansion which was sold out in the mid eighteenth century by his descendants. The remaining relic of his mansion can be seen even now at the embankment of Shahji adjacent to the Meetanghat Dargah Sharif at its east.

Meetanghat has been recorded on the panel of history since the seventeenth century. The great Sufi saint Hazrat Makhdoom Munam Pak (R.A.) came to Patna from Delhi in the middle of the eighteenth century and on the basis of his inward indication chose to reside at Meetanghat. Since when the premises of the Jama Masjid of Meetanghat became the said Sufi’s khanquah (abbey), its popularity spread to the whole subcontinent. Earlier there were a grand mosque and a madrasa in this campus, but with the arrival of Hazrat Munem Pak (R.A) here a great central khanqah was established whose branches are spread and flourishing all over the subcontinent today.