"Visit a historic prayer ground with cultural significance."
The Idgah wall on the west side contains a central mihrab and three other subsidiary mihrabs on both sides. The central one is semi-octagonal with a four-centred slightly stilted arch. It is 3.05m high and from about 2.74m starts the phase of transition. The breath of the mihrab is 2.26m.
The semi-octagonal space is 1.35m recessed with the wall. Thus the breath of the wall as a whole in the middle is bulky as clearly seen from the backside (roadside). All the mihrabs are recessed within rectangular frames. The side mihrabs are 2.67m high and 1.37m wide. On both sides of the central mihrab there are two decorative multicusped panels within the rectangular frames.
There is a three-stepped attached mimbar to the north of the central mihrab. It is most probably a subsequent construction. Of the four octagonal corner towers of the Idgah the one on the northwest corner is original. The Idgah wall is plastered brickwork and the parapet, which is straightly horizontal, has blind merlons.
the Idgah and tomb at Ryakotta, was taken by Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902) in 1858 and published in an album entitled 'Photographic Views of Ryakotta and other places, in the Salem District...with descriptive notes, by J.A.C. Boswell, Esq., M.C.S.' (Madras, 1858). ''The tomb in the foreground was erected a few years ago over the remains of a Musalmani fair, and near it is an Idgah.
The term Idgah is applied to a platform enclosed by a wall, where Muhammedans assemble for occasional devotions especially at the seasons of the Ids or festivals''. Tripe was in charge of one of the battalions of the 12th Madras Native Infantry, a regiment funded in 1824 and stationed in Madras. In 1855, Tripe was commissioned to take photographs for the British East India Company and the Madras Presidency which resulted in six albums, one of which was of Ryakotta.
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