Currency - Bangladesh - 20 Taka- Year 2014

Item code: 71

Year	2014
Obverse	·         Portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), the Father of the Nation. ·         Jatiyo Sriti Soudho or National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar, designed by Syed Mainul Hossain.
Reverse	Shait Gambuj Masjid (Shat Gambuj, Shait Gunbad, Shat Gombuj, Shait Gumbad, Saith Gunbad, Shat Gombuz) - Mosque of Sixty Domes in Bagerhat District.
Watermark	Portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; Bank of Bangladesh logo; Electrotype '20'.
Signature	Atiur Rahman (Governor)

Obverse description:

        

Functions of Bangladesh Bank (Central Bank)

The Bangladesh Bank performs all the functions that a central bank in any country is expected to perform. Such functions include maintaining price stability through economic and monetary policy measures, managing the country’s foreign exchange and gold reserve, and regulating the banking sector of the country. Like all other central banks, Bangladesh Bank is both the government’s banker and the banker’s bank, a “lender of last resort”. Bangladesh Bank, like most other central banks, exercises a monopoly over the issue of currency and banknotes. Except for the one- and two-taka notes, it issues all other denominations of Bangladeshi taka.

The major functional areas include:                                                        

·         Formulation and implementation of monetary and credit policies.

·         Regulation and supervision of banks and non-bank financial institutions, promotion and development of domestic financial markets.

·         Management of the country's international reserves.

·         Issuance of currency notes.

·         Regulation and supervision of the payment system.

·         Acting as banker to the government.

·         Money laundering prevention.

·         Collection and furnishing of credit information.

·         Implementation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act.

·         Managing a deposit insurance scheme.

Reverse description                  

Shait Gambuj Masjid(Sixty Dome Mosque)

The Sixty Dome Mosque more commonly known as Shait Gambuj Mosque or Saith Gunbad Masjid), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a mosque in Bangladesh, the largest in that country from the Sultanate period. It has been described as "the most impressive Muslim monuments in the whole of the Indian subcontinent." 

In mid-15th century, a Muslim colony was founded in the unfriendly mangrove forest of the Sundarbans near the coastline in the Bagerhat District by a saint-General, named Khan Jahan Ali. He preached in an affluent city during the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah, then known as 'Khalifalabad'. Khan Jahan adorned this city with more than a dozen mosques, the spectacular ruins of which are focused around the most imposing and largest multidomed mosques in Bangladesh, known as the Shait-Gumbad Masjid (160'×108'). The construction of the mosque was started in 1442 and it was completed in 1459.The mosque was used for prayer purposes. It was also used as a madrasha and assembly hall. 

Inside view

It is located in Bagerhat district in southern Bangladesh which is in Khulna Division. It is about 3 miles far from the main town of Bagerhat. Bagerhat is nearly 200 miles away from Dhaka which is the capital of Bangladesh. 

Style

The 'Sixty Dome' Mosque has walls of unusually thick, tapered brick in the Tughlaq style and a hut-shaped roofline that anticipates later styles. The length of the mosque is 160 feet and width is 108 feet. There are 77 low domes arranged in seven rows of eleven, and one dome on each corner, bringing the total to 81 domes. There are four towers. Two of four towers were used to call azaan. The interior is divided into many aisles and bays by slender columns, which culminate in numerous arches that support the roof.

The mosque has 77 squat domes with 7 four-sided pitched Bengali domes in the middle row. The vast prayer hall, although provided with 11 arched doorways on east and 7 each on north and south for ventilation and light, presents a dark and somber appearance inside. It is divided into 7 longitudinal aisles and 11 deep bays by a forest of 60 slender stone columns, from which springs rows of endless arches, supporting the domes. Six feet thick, slightly tapering walls and hollow and round, almost detached corner towers, resembling the bastions of fortress, each capped by small rounded cupolas, recall the Tughlaq architecture of Delhi. The mosque represents wonderful archeological beauty which was the signature in the 15th century.

The mosque is locally known as the 'Shat Gombuj Masjid', which in Bangla means Sixty Domed Mosque. However, there are 77 domes over the main hall and exactly 60 stone pillars. It is possible that the mosque was originally referred to as the Sixty Pillared Mosque where Amud (شصت عمؤد) meaning column in Arabic/Persian, later got corrupted to Gombuj (গম্বুজ) in Bangla, which means domes.

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