The architect behind Colombo’s Grand Mosque
On May 1, 2002, the then Editor of The Island newspaper, Gamini Weerakoon, wrote an appreciation on his close friend Ananda Peiris on his third month death anniversary, mentioning among many things that Mr. Peiris had designed the Colombo Grand Mosque at Pettah.
Very keen to see her father’s creation, my wife Anoushka and I arranged a visit through a Moor acquaintance. We found an imposing structure in the old quarter of Central Colombo, a solitary date palm standing sentinel at the main entrance. The building was rather modern in comparison to the others on Moor Street. A small cannon in the compound puzzled me by its presence in a place of worship.
Many years later, I found an article from the Ceylon Daily News of February 7, 1972 that gave extensive details of the building of the Mosque, which commenced in 1966 and was to be completed in mid-1972.
The article stated that the project was handled by the architectural firm M/s. S.H. Peiris and Ananda Peiris (father & son) and that Ananda Peiris, the surviving partner was the sole architect of the new Grand Mosque. It said he had drawn inspiration from Mughal Emperor Humayun’s tomb built in 1564 A.D. in New Delhi, India, designed by two Persian architects, Mirak Mirza and his son Sayyid Muhammad.
My wife’s three siblings Lehana, Shehan and Thushika recall a neighbour at Horton Place, Colombo 7, Muhammadh Ovais, a member of the Management Committee of the Grand Mosque initially approaching their father about the Mosque.
The article detailed how the two storeyed Mosque was to have a ground floor and lower ground floor, the latter with eight large Howz (ablution tanks) with a floor area of 19,000 sq. feet. The first floor (5000 sq. feet) and the second floor (3700 sq. feet) would accommodate 4000 persons.
The roof would have 16 semi-circular concrete barrel walls and the Minaret (calling tower) would be the tallest of any mosque in Ceylon. The Dome, influenced by Persian architecture, soaring over a 100 feet high would be the biggest of its kind. The edifice was to be completed with concrete grills in the front, finished in white to give it a Moorish touch.
Ananda Peiris replicated the grills from the old Mosque and identical grills are still seen in the adjoining Arabic School.
Ascending 93 steps along a narrow spiral staircase within the Minaret brought me to the Dome, where peeking through the small fanlight, the stupendous view of the Colombo skyline blew my breath away. However, the Muezzin no longer makes the ascent five times a day to call the faithful to prayer due to modern-day loudspeakers.
“When completed, it will be Ceylon’s biggest mosque and should stand on par with the famous Kuala Lumpur Mosque said to be one of the biggest in the Southeast Asia region,” Mr Peiris says in the article.
The article adds that this multi-million-rupee project replacing the 300-year-old Grand Mosque in Old Moor Street, Pettah was handled by a ‘non-Muslim’ firm of architects M/s S.H. Peiris and Ananda Peiris for the Trustees of the Colombo’s Grand Mosque.
Mr. Peiris says “our Firm went into business only eight years ago and this is the first of its type handled by us and the biggest.”
S. H. Peiris was earlier one of the four partners of the leading architectural firm M/s Billimoria, De Silva, Peiris &
Panditharatna, and after qualifying in Denmark, Ananda Peiris also worked there. On April 23, 1968 he was admitted as an Associate Corporate Architect of the Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors of London.
Upali Kapilasena, Chairman of Premier Electric Company, electrical contractor of the Colombo Grand Mosque project recalled how his dear friend Ananda Peiris together with a local building contractor worked for years to complete the present Colombo Grand Mosque completely funded by Mr. Muhammadh Ovais.
Sadly apart from the article, records of Ananda Peiris’s work in designing the Colombo Grand Mosque could not be traced.
Any further information or photographs of the work of Ananda Peiris and the Colombo Grand Mosque could be emailed to nishanfernando70@gmail.com.