Architecture of Bengal
Encyclopedia

The Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

 region, which includes the Republic of Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

 and the Indian state of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

, has many architectural relics and monuments dating back thousands of years.

Pala Empire

The Pala Empire
Pala Empire
The Pāla Empire was one of the major middle kingdoms of India existed from 750–1174 CE. It was ruled by a Buddhist dynasty from Bengal in the eastern region of the Indian subcontinent, all the rulers bearing names ending with the suffix Pala , which means protector. The Palas were often described...

 was a Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 dynasty in control of Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

 from the 8th to the 12th century. Palas created a distinctive form of Buddhist art known as the "Pala School of Sculptural Art." The gigantic structures of Vikramshila Vihar, Odantpuri Vihar, and Jagaddal Vihar were masterpieces of the Palas. These mammoth structures were destroyed by the forces of Bakhtiar Khilji. The Somapura Mahavihara
Somapura Mahavihara
Somapura Mahavihara in Paharpur, Badalgachhi Upazila, Naogaon District, Bangladesh is among the best known Buddhist viharas in the Indian Subcontinent and is one of the most important archeological sites in the country...

, a creation of harmapala of Bengal|Dharmapala]], at Paharpur, Bangladesh, is the largest Buddhist Vihara in the Indian subcontinent, and has been described as a "pleasure to the eyes of the world." UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 made it a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

 in 1985. The Pala architectural style was followed throughout south-eastern Asia and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

. Bengal rightfully earned the name "Mistress of the East". Dr. Stella Kramrisch says: "The art of Bihar and Bengal exercised a lasting influence on that of Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, Burma, Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 and Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

." Dhiman and Vittpala were two celebrated Pala sculptors. About Somapura Mahavihara, Mr. J.C. French says with grief: "For the research of the Pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...

s of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 we spend millions of dollars every year. But had we spent only one percent of that money for the excavation of Somapura Mahavihara, who knows what extraordinary discoveries could have been made".

Tomb architecture of Bengal

Tomb
Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...

 architecture is a type of building erected over the graves. The extant tombs in Bengal are small in number but show significant variety and interesting adaptation of the conventional Islamic form to regional tastes and requirements. As in other Muslim countries, hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....

 injunctions to practise taswiyat al-qubur, that is, to make the tomb level with the surrounding earth, did not prevent the raising of a grave above the ground level, erection of brick or stone cenotaph
Cenotaph
A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...

s, or the building of monumental mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

s in Bengal. Architectural and epigraphic remains of the pre-Mughal and Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

 periods point to the burial places of three groups of people- conquerors and nobility, saints, and ghazis (victors in religious wars). The Arabic word qabr is used for a grave; the Bengali word samadhi for a tomb; and the Persian term mazar is an honorific appellation for the tomb of a person of high rank. Tombs of saints and ghazis, when attached to dargah complexes, are called by the comprehensive term dargah
Dargah
A Dargah is a Sufi shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint. Local Muslims visit the shrine known as . Dargahs are often associated with Sufi meeting rooms and hostels, known as khanqah...

; the Persian term astana for a holy tomb is not uncommon in Bengal. Funerary inscriptions contain such terms as maqbara
Maqbara
The Arabic word Maqbara is derived from the word Qabr, which means grave. Though maqbara refers to the graves of all Muslims, it refers especially to the graves of religious figures or Waliyullahs who dedicated their life to Islam, striving to be true Muslims and training others to follow Islam...

, turba, qabr, gunbad, rawza.

Tombs in Bengal may be classified under two chronological periods: Sultanate or pre-Mughal, and Mughal.

Sultanate or pre-Mughal tombs

As in other Muslim buildings in Bengal, local Bengali tastes and techniques are more pronounced in pre-Mughal tombs, while preference for cosmopolitan Mughal style dominates Mughal funerary structures. Notwithstanding the survival of a number of detached funerary epigraphs, a systematic study of the tomb architecture in Bengal based on historical sequence is made difficult because the majority of tombs in their present state are without inscriptions recording the name of the deceased or the date of the construction of the tomb. Local traditions are often relied upon to hypothesise the identity of a tomb, although internal evidence implicit in the technique and style of construction provides a stronger basis for establishing the authenticity of a burial place.

Burial places in Bengal range from open-air funerary enclosures without architectural covering over the grave to monumental mausoleums. Graves of some of the important saints in Bengal - Shan Jalal (R) at Sylhet, Alaul Haq (R) and Nur Qutbul Alam (R) at Chhoti Dargha, Paqndua, are in open enclosures and conform to the orthodox belief that "only the pious deeds of the dead will offer him protection and shade". The grave of Baba Adam Shaid (R) at Rampal, Munshiganj, one of the earliest known Muslim saints in Bengal, was until recently without architectural covering. Among the tombs of the first ghazis, the mazar-madrasa complex at Tribeni
Tribeni
Tribeni is a small town in Hooghly in the state of West Bengal, India. It was an old holy place for the Hindus. The Muslims took over it during early phases of their conquest of Bengal.-Geography:Tribeni is located at ....

, ascribed to Zafar Khan
Zafar Khan
Zafar Khan was the Muslim Indian general of Alauddin Khilji of the Khilji dynasty, ruler of the Delhi Sultanate in northern India.Zafar Khan defeated an invading Mongol army near Jalandhar in 1297 which secured Alauddin Khilji's throne....

 on the basis of two inscriptions dated 698 AH (1298 AD) and 713 AH (1313 AD), belongs to the category of open-air tombs. The tomb consists of two roofless square rooms raised on a stone plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...

. This tomb is not only the earliest known Muslim monument in Bengal but also the earliest extant mausoleum in eastern India. The exquisitely carved black basalt sarcophagus
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

 at Mograpara (Sonargaon) near the Panch Pir Mazar has been ascribed to Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah
Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah
Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah was the third Sultan of the first Iliyas Shahi dynasty of Bengal and one of the more widely known of medieval Sultans of Bengal. His tomb is situated in Narayanganj of current day Bangladesh....

 (d 1411 AD). The ornament depicting lamps suspending from niches on the sides of the sarcophagus recalls lamp motifs in the mihrabs of the Adina Mosque
Adina Mosque
Adina Mosque is a mosque located in Malda district of West Bengal, India. It was constructed in the 14th century. In medieval times, the mosque was considered to be the largest undivided Bengal, as well as the entire Indian subcontinent.-Establishment:...

 built by Ghiyasuddin's father Sikandar Shah
Sikandar Shah
Sikandar Shah was the second Sultan of the Ilyas dynasty of Bengal. He succeeded his father Ilyas Shah. He built the celebrated Adina Mosque in Pandua in 1368.-Second campaign of Firuz Shah Tughluq:...

 in 776 AH (1375-6 AD); its funerary symbolism had already developed in the medieval tombs in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. Sikandar (d. 1389 AD) himself is believed to have been buried in a nine-domed (now fallen) square chamber adjoining the north bay of Adina Mosque's west exterior.

The qubba
Qubba
A qubba is an Arabic word for tomb, especially Muslim domed mausoleums or just the dome of a tomb, or any type of building with a dome, such as the Dome of the Rock...

 or the domed cubic monument is the oldest and commonest type of tomb in Bengal, as in other parts of the Muslim world. It existed in pre-Mughal and Mughal periods. The qubba at Imadpur, Bihar Sharif
Bihar Sharif
Bihar Sri is the district headquarters of Nalanda district in the state of Bihar in eastern India.-History:The ancient Odantpuri University was located here, an important centre for the learning of Buddhism. Odatpuri is center of Buddhist culture...

 (India), identified as the tomb of the first Turkish conqueror of Bengal, Bakhtiyar Khalji (d. 1206 AD), is dated to a later period on stylistic grounds by Z. A. Desai. The earliest extant qubba translated into regional Bengali form and also the first monumental tomb in Bengal is the Eklakhi Mausoleum at Pandua
Pandua
Pandua or Hazrat Pandua or Firuzabad is a historical city, presently lying in the ruined condition in Malda district of the Indian state of West Bengal. Pandua is now almost synonymously known as Adina, a small town located about 18 km North of Malda Town.The city was probably founded by...

. This is believed to be the burial place of Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad (d. 1433 AD), his queen, and his son, Shamsuddin Ahmad Shah. The brick tomb chamber, externally square with curved cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

, the octagonal corner towers, and an entrance on each side, is internally converted into an octagon by thick brickwork left hollow at four corners to accommodate four small cells; the dome rests on squinch
Squinch
A squinch in architecture is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome...

es carried on embedded stone pillars. Once profusely embellished, the surface ornamentation bears traces of floral painting on plaster in the interior and a variety of terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 and glazed tiles on the exterior.

The Eklakhi style became a hallmark of Bengal architecture during the later Iliyas Shahi and Husain Shahi periods and persisted in the early Mughal period. Two important tombs in the Eklakhi tradition in Bangladesh are Khan Jahan's at Bagerhat, dated 863 AH (1459 AD) and Badr Pir's at Chittagong
Chittagong
Chittagong ) is a city in southeastern Bangladesh and the capital of an eponymous district and division. Built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the city is home to Bangladesh's busiest seaport and has a population of over 4.5 million, making it the second largest city in the country.A trading...

. These tombs resemble each other in many ways. Though both are now shorn of their original surface embellishments as a protected monument, Khan Jahan's Tomb is in a better state of preservation and retains many of its original features. To accommodate the dome on the square tomb chamber, the phase of transition in both the tombs is achieved by squinches resting on brackets. The most distinctive feature of Khan Jahan's tomb is its lavishly inscribed sarcophagus. The tomb of Shah Safi (d. late thirteenth or early fourteenth century) in the dargah complex at Chhota Pandua (Hughli, West Bengal) in its present state is Mughal remodelling of a pre-Mughal curve-corniced qubba. The most important Mughal mounment in the Eklakhi tradition is the mausoleum of Bahram Saqqa at Burdwan who died during Akbar
Akbar the Great
Akbar , also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam or Akbar the Great , was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India...

's reign in 970 AH (1562-3 AD). At Monghyr (Bihar, India) this tradition is echoed in the tomb of Shah Nafa, built in 903 AH (1497-8 AD) by Alauddin Hussain Shah's son, Prince Daniyal. No traces remain of Husain Shah's (d 1519 AD) black basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

 sarcophagi, which survived until c 1846 AD ,or the tombs of later sultans at Banglakot at GAUR.

Mughal tombs

The extant Mughal tombs are larger in number than the Sultanate tombs and show greater variety of form by exploiting the parent style. They are built singly, often in the vicinity of mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

s, or within a walled enclosure forming a small complex together with a mosque, or in larger complexes of religious and palatial buildings set within fortified gardens, e. g., the tombs of Bibi Pari in the Lalbagh Fort (Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

) and Anwar Shahid (Burdwan). Octagonal tombs appear for the first time in Bengal during the Mughal period. The qubba assumed its conventional exterior having a straight cornice. A group of qubba type tombs at Dhaka ascribed to the female members of Nawab Shaista Khan's household are delightful examples of funerary structures. The Mughal tombs are usually raised on platforms but sometimes panelled with blind niches. In addition to its basic form as a domed cube, during the Mughal period the qubba assumed two further forms, constituted by attaching:
  1. A verandah south of the square tomb chamber and
  2. an ambulatory consisting of a continuous verandah or chambers and passages round the tomb chamber.


Representing the first type are two examples of note at Dhaka. The first tomb believed to be of Khwaja Shahbaz who, on the evidence of the inscription on the adjacent mosque, built the mosque in 1089 AH (1679 AD), is located at Ramna, Dhaka.
The tomb and the mosque form a complex within a walled enclosure entered through a gateway on the southeast. The other tomb, ascribed to Dara Begum, is now without any grave. It has been incorporated as a prayer chamber of the Lalmatia Jami Mosque; the mihrab
Mihrab
A mihrab is semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla; that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying...

 on the west wall of the original tomb chamber facilitated this conversion. The architectural scheme of the second type finds a prototype in the tomb of I'timad al-Daula erected by Nurjahan at Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

 between c 1622-28 AD. Compared to the simple qubba layout, its elaborate plan rendered this type exclusive. In Bengal there are four outstanding examples of this type: (i) the tomb of Shah Niamatullah (d second half of the seventeenth century) at Firuzpur, Gaur (Bangladesh), ascribed to the patronage of Shah Shuja (AD 1639-60); (ii) the tomb of Bibi Pari at Lalbagh, Dhaka; the (iii) tomb of Bibi Mariam in Dhaka; and (iv) the tomb of Bakht Huma at Rajmahal
Rajmahal
Rajmahal is a city and a notified area in Sahibganj district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Rajmahal is the only sub-divisional town in Sahibganj district. It is one of the most historic place in Jharkhand...

, attributed to the patronage of Shaista Khan
Shaista Khan
Mirza Abu Talib, better known by his title Shaista Khan , was a Subahdar and general in the army of the Mughal Empire. A maternal uncle to Emperor Aurangzeb, he served as the Mughal governor of Bengal from 1664 to 1688, and was a key figure during the rule of his nephew, the emperor...

 and dated to the late seventeenth century.

The last example of this type in Bengal is the tomb at Khushbagh, Murshidabad
Murshidabad
Murshidabad is a city in Murshidabad district of West Bengal state in India. The city of Murshidabad is located on the southern bank of the Bhagirathi, a distributary of the Ganges River. It was the capital of undivided Bengal during the Mughal rule. Nawabs of Bengal used to rule Bengal from this...

, where lie buried Alivardi Khan
Alivardi Khan
Ali Vardi Khan was the Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa during 1740 - 1756. He toppled the Nasiri Dynasty of Bengal and took power as Nawab.-Early life:...

 and Siraj ud-Daulah
Siraj ud-Daulah
Mîrzâ Muhammad Sirâj-ud-Daulah , more commonly known as Siraj ud-Daulah , was the last independent Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The end of his reign marks the start of British East India Company rule over Bengal and later almost all of South Asia...

 with other members of their family. This type presents interesting variations in design - the tombs of Niamatullah and Bibi Mariam have verandahs for ambulatories; Bibi Pari's and Bakht Huma's tombs have passages on sides and chambers on corners. Again, the tombs of Niamatullah, Bibi Pari and Bakht Huma have three arch openings and that of Bibi Mariam has five arch openings on each of the four sides. In the context of the universal use of brick in Bengal architecture, Bibi Pari's tomb is unique for its extensive use of specially imported marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 from Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....

, black basalt from Gaya, and grey sandstone from Chunar for the interior.

The architectural adaptation of a simple Bengali hut with its dochala or chauchala roof became a significant tomb type in seventeenth century Bengal architecture. Like the Eklakhi style, it was not confined to funerary buildings, but gained popularity in various forms of structures. A notable example is the tomb of Fath Khan at Gaur where a plastered brick structure, having a dochala roof over a single rectangular tomb chamber with entrances on the south and west, is built in the walled compound of the KADAM RASUL shrine. Another good example of the dochala type is the side chambers attached to the square tomb chamber of Anwar Shahid in Burdwan. The chauchala roof used in Mughal tombs in Bengal does not present the true Bengali chauchala form; it is, what Dani calls a 'segmented square roof' of the type used in I'timad al-Daula'a tomb. One of the earliest examples of this type was the supposed tomb of Islam Khan Chishti (d 1613 AD), now reconstructed beyond recognition, in the Dhaka High Court compound. In Chittagong, the tomb next to the Bagh-i Hamza Mosque is a good example of this type. The chauchala roofs in Ibrahim Danishmand's tomb complex at Mograpara are interesting interpretations of a Sultani feature. Remains of a double-storeyed tomb at Arifil, Brahmanbaria, containing two graves in the basement and two corresponding cenotaphs in the upper storey recall in a modest form the arrangement in I'timad al-Daul's tomb. The remains of two octagonal tombs at Nauda (Rajshahi) and at Burhanpur (Rajmahal) in their pavilion-like look and surface treatment adhere to the model of the octagonal tomb set under Shahjahan.

Tombs of the nawab
Nawab
A Nawab or Nawaab is an honorific title given to Muslim rulers of princely states in South Asia. It is the Muslim equivalent of the term "maharaja" that was granted to Hindu rulers....

s of Murshidabad during the eighteenth century reflect their predilections. The humble burial place of Murshid Quli Khan
Murshid Quli Khan
Murshid Quli Khan was the first Nawab of Bengal. In fact circumstances resulted in his being the first independent ruler of Bengal post the death of Emperor Aurangzeb...

 beneath the entrance portal of his Katra Mosque (Murshidabad) consists of a small cell with a grave covered with clay, fulfilling his last wish that "the dust of the worshippers' feet might fall upon his breast". Alivardi Khan wished to be buried in his much-loved garden, Khushbagh. Mir Jafar
Mir Jafar
-Notes:# "Riyazu-s-salatin", Ghulam Husain Salim - a reference to the appointment of Mohanlal can be found # "Seir Muaqherin", Ghulam Husain Tabatabai - a reference to the conspiracy can be found...

 lies buried at Jafarganj graveyard amidst a thousand open-air graves.

The veneration of the dead in Bengal and the creative genius of modern Bengali builders have yielded some outstanding examples of tomb architecture in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. The Tin Netar Mazar in Dhaka marking the burial place of the three pre-Liberation Bengali political leaders - A. K. Fazlul Huq
A. K. Fazlul Huq
Not to be confused with the cricket ground in Dhaka Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium Sher-e-Bangla Abul Kashem Fazlul Huq was a well-known Bengali statesman in the first half of the 20th century...

, Khawaja Nazimuddin
Khawaja Nazimuddin
Hajji Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, KCIE , was the second Governor-General of Pakistan, and later the second Prime Minister of Pakistan as well.-Early life:...

 and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was a Pakistani-Bengali politician and statesman who served as 5th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 till 1957, and a close associate of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime minister of Pakistan...

 - is an interpretation of the traditional Islamic architecture motif of arch. The tombs of Poet Nazrul Islam and President Ziaur Rahman at Dhaka are notable examples of modern open-air tombs in Bangladesh. [Asma Serajuddin]

West Bengal terra cotta temple architecture

Although there is plenty of evidence of human settlement in Bengal from prehistoric times but there are regrettable dearth of evidence. This is because of the soil structure of Bengal. The community being spread on the alluvial plain of the mighty rivers of Ganges , Brahmaputra
Brahmaputra River
The Brahmaputra , also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia. It is the only Indian river that is attributed the masculine gender and thus referred to as a in Indo-Aryan languages and languages with Indo-Aryan influence...

 the whole region is susceptible to flood and its resulting unsettling geographical pattern. The only somewhat undulated regions being the western Chota Nagpur
Chota Nagpur
Chota Nagpur may refer to*Chota Nagpur Plateau*Chhotanagpur*Chota Nagpur Division, a division of British India *Chota Nagpur States, a collection of princely states of British India...

 and the Himalayan ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...

s of east and the north. This soil structure is reflected in the building material chosen by the Bengali temple designers. Mainly the terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 temples with elaborate surface decorations and lettering written in nagari
Nagari script
The Nāgarī script is the ancestor of Devanagari, Assamese, Bengali and other variants, and was first used to write Prakrit and Sanskrit. It was in vogue from before the 10th century...

 alphabets. The roof structure also has been the effect of the heavy rainfall that the Ganges river delta and the Terai
Terai
The Terai is a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas, and forests located south of the outer foothills of the Himalaya, the Siwalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and their tributaries. The Terai belongs to the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion...

 experiences throughout the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...

, it has been curved effectively in most cases to get rid of the huge amount of water as soon as possible and thereby increasing the lifetime of the structure.
The architectural evidence generally has been from the Gupta Empire
Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed approximately from 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent. Founded by Maharaja Sri-Gupta, the dynasty was the model of a classical civilization. The peace and prosperity created under leadership of Guptas enabled the...

 period onwards. There has been recent discoveries of terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 plaques from the times of Chandraketugarh and Mahasthangarh
Mahasthangarh
Mahasthangarh is the earliest urban archaeological site so far discovered in Bangladesh. The village Mahasthan in Shibganj thana of Bogra District contains the remains of an ancient city which was called Pundranagara or Paundravardhanapura in the territory of Pundravardhana...

 throwing additional light on the architectural styles of Sunga and Gupta
Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed approximately from 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent. Founded by Maharaja Sri-Gupta, the dynasty was the model of a classical civilization. The peace and prosperity created under leadership of Guptas enabled the...

 periods. Apart from the Palavi and Phamsana influence on the architectural style it is also closely connected to the Bhanja style of temples from Mayurbhanj district of Orrisa. But the temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...

s of south Bengal is a distinction due to its roof
Roof
A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....

ing style so unique and closely related to the paddy roofed traditional building style of rural Bengal. Bishnupur in the southern district Bankura
Bankura
Bankura is a city and a municipality in Bankura District in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bankura District.-Etymology:...

 of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

 has a remarkable set of such temples which being built from the Malla
Malla (India)
Malla was one of the solasa mahajanapadas of ancient India mentioned in the Anguttara Nikaya. It was named after the ruling clan of the same name. The Mahabharata mentions the territory as the Mallarashtra . The Malla mahajanapada was situated north of Magadha. It was a small mahajanapada...

 dynasty are examples of this style. Most of these temples are covered on the outer surface with terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 reliefs which contains plenty of secular materials making these important to reconstruct the social structure from these times.

The temple structures contain gabled roofs which are colloquially called the chala, For example a gabled roof with an eight sided pyramid structured roof with be called "ath chala" or literally the eight faces of the roof. And frequently there is more than one tower in the temple building. These are built of laterite and brick bringing them at the mercy of severe weather conditions of southern Bengal. Dakshineswar Kali Temple
Dakshineswar Kali Temple
The Dakshineswar Kali Temple is a Hindu temple located in Dakshineswar near Kolkata. Situated on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, the presiding deity of the temple is Bhavatarini, an aspect of Kali, meaning, 'She who liberates Her devotees from the ocean of existence i.e Saṃsāra'...

 is one example of the Bhanja style while the additional small temples of Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

along the river bank are example of southern Bengal roof style though in much smaller dimension.




Further reading

  • Alexander Cunningham, Archaeological Survey of India Report, Vol xv, Calcutta, 1882
  • Abid Ali Khan, Memoirs of Gaur and Pandua, (Edited and revised by HE Stapleton), Calcutta, 1931
  • Hakim Habibur Rahman, Asudgan-i-Dhaka (Urdu), Dhaka, 1946
  • AH Dani, Muslim Architecture in Bengal, Dacca, 1961
  • ZA Desai, Islamic Culture, 1972
  • AH Dani, List of Ancient Monuments on Bengal, Calcutta, 1986
  • Asma Serajuddin, 'Mughal Tombs in Dhaka', Dhaka: Past Present Future, (Ed by Sharif Uddin Ahmed), Dhaka, 1991.

External links

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