Architecture of India    
Brick and Bamboo at Bengal – 2

The Bengal Mosque

Once again, after the lessons of the Adina Mosque, the climate of Bengal proved to be a decisive factor in determining the plan. It was evident that a large open courtyard was useless in the long monsoons in Bengal. And so the courtyard was replaced by an enclosed hall. Once this principle had been established, a large number of mosques came up in and around the city of Gaur. Notable among these are the Chotta Sona and Bara Sona masjids. Both apparently had gilt applied to their curved roofs, which gives them their name – literally, ‘Golden Mosques’.

One of the last of the mosque examples in the Qadam Rasul mosque, a rather smaller example with stocky basalt pillars supporting the arches above. The mosque, according to Satish Grover, is ‘flaccid and formless’, but possesses nevertheless beauty in its robust proportions, in the aggressive outward thrust of the column bases, and indeed in the columns themselves which are divided into tiers, emphasizing their low height and posture.

The Dakhil Darwaza, marking the entrance to the remodeled city of Gaur with its broad thoroughfares, as well as the Feroza Minar or ‘Blue Tower’ marked some of the finest late examples of the Bengal style before the Ilyas Shahi dynasty succumbed to an Abyssinian mercenary in 1489.

The days of Bengal producing fine provincial architecture were almost over. The invasion of Sher Shah further weakened the province and absorption by the mighty Mughal empire was inevitable. Yet the harsh climate of Bengal and the lack of building stone had combined to produce a style which was unique, and which, in the form of the curved roof, continues to have effect in the architecture of Sikh Gurudwaras even today.   

– Ashish Nangia
August 11, 2002

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