Hazi ji's mosque or Lal Masjid
It is a most popular landmark and is located on the busy road. In Mughal time this road straightaway led to Multan from Delhi and was south of the Uttrapath. In early decades of the 18th Century, it passed below the massive wall of the fort and desolate country. Only handful of people used to live inside the fort and new settlement had not yet begun in the Bhabhra Mohalla down the elevation on the southern side of the mound of the ruined city of the Yodheyas or the Ayudhjeevi people, who were supposed to be the predecessors of the Jats of this area.
The Lal Moasjid was erected two hundred years after the Rohtak fort first came to be noticed by the Army of the East India Company. Until then considerable moslem population had settled in Rohtak from the neighboring villages, traders and artisans and masons. The fort wall perished the last of its masonry walls was excavated sometime in 1970s when the lone Dilli Darwaja was also razed.
One of chief families of the Musalmans in Rohtak had planned a Haz to Makka in Saudi Arabia and on his return he vowed to raise a magnificent mosque in gratitute of the benevolence of Allah who had ordained him to go on a journey for Haz. The mosque was completed sometime in the year 1935 AD. It is located on the Bhiwani stand and one of the main landmarks but not noted on the websites of the district or of travel agencies.
It has two tall minarets on both sides. The staircases in the hollow minarets can take up up into the canopy from which we can view the entire city that now boasts of 4 lacs of souls. Hazi ji's name in inscribed on an inscription stone affixed on the entrance made of carved sand stone. Above it the little room for the Maulvi. The main prayer hall and courtyard is on the first floor. Its walls were decorated with ceramic tiles with floral motifs and the alcoves on both sides of the Mimbar were done in lime plaster in which hand made mirrors were stuck depicted flower bearing grass like plants raised in a vase. Its outer courtyard wall was raised and rooms provided along its length. Taking cognizance of the encroachment a legal suit in court is pending against the Waqf Board and other concerned.
[Pics by me, 1995
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