Vol. VI, No. 1.] Pre-Muyhal Mosques of Bengal. 25 



[N.S.] 



artisans for construction ; and for materials they utilised the 

 fragments of Hindu temples they had demolished. The result 

 was this curious superposition of Hindu details on general 

 Saracenic plans. 



Another peculiarity is the prevalence of bricks. In the 



Prevalence of Bricks. P la i n s of Bengal no stone can be had 



anywhere, and if required had to be 

 ^brought from long distances, chiefly by water. Hence stones 

 were very sparingly used. The bricks made from stiff clay of 

 the plains were fairly lasting and far cheaper, and could 

 further at a small cost be moulded into variou- neat carvings. 

 Hence in the Bengal mosques bricks practically superseded 

 stones as building material. Its effect was that the mosques 

 became more and more long with numerous domes and a pro- 

 fusion of carvings, but they could not be made high, with 

 correspondingly imposing openings. The domes were also low 

 in height, in the earliest mosques partly from the use of horizon- 

 tal arches. The pillars were of -tone; but even they, from 

 scarcity of this material, had to be made sufficiently low. The 

 pillars were usually of Rajamahal basalt. In some of the 

 largest mosques of later times, the walls were up to a certain 

 height faced with stones. 



more 



B. — Later Mosques. 



About 1338 A.D., Bengal became independent, and tin 

 T . __ independence lasted for nearly two cen- 



Later Mosques. ^^ ^ ft ha]f Unde| . t]ie indei)en . 



dent Sultans a large number of mosques came to be built in 

 various parts of the province. Architectural art waa more and 



developed ; and in course of time a special style was 

 developed showing various peculiarities both in the general plan 

 and in the details. Among such peculiarities may be men- 

 tioned curved battlements, four corner towers octagonal and 

 rising just above the battlement, many low domes without 

 any base of cylindrical drum, height low in compari n with 

 length, and in consequence openings generally insignifjc at, a 

 profusion of brick carvings and in several instances of fine 

 glazed tiles. The best specimens of the style are naturally 

 found in the two capitals, Gaur and Pandua. But notable ex- 

 amples lie scattered in and uear Satgaon, Sunargaon, khalifa- 

 tabad, Devlkot and elsewhere. The earliest examples ! re 

 disappeared. At present the oldest and the most imposing of 

 them is the A din ah mosque of Hazrat Pandue bearing the 

 date Kajab 770 H. or December 1374 AD. 



It is a matter of great regret that most of these mosques 



are more or less in ruins. A careful ex- 

 Its Divisions. araination of their remains enables us, 



however, to group thorn into two broad divisions. 



