Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c38.19

c38.19

That there was a certain class of religious structure produced in these parts and which has been referred to as the “ lost temple type of pre-Islamic Bengal,” seems more than probable, yet concrete evidences of such a development are rare and fragmentary No complete example has survived, as all the ancient Hindu sites became convenient quarries from which the Moslems extracted the ready-made masonry required for their own purposes. As in the mos-ques at Ajmır and the Qutb at Delhı, so from the great con-gregational mosque of Adına at Pandua, and other Islamic buildings in this area, some idea of the regional type of temple architecture, as it existed in the twelfth century, may be abstracted. Out of the masses of sculptured stones incorporated in these Islamic structures, it is not difficult to envisage the manner in which the Hindu buildings were decorated, but their architectural appearance can only be a matter of inference Two structural factors however emerge from this miscellaneous collection of material, and these supported by other circumstances, indicate that there was a sıkhara over the temple shrine, a tall structure in tiers of a very ornate, almost florid character, and that a distinguish-ing feature of the style as a whole was the invariable use of a trefoil arch. Even with such slender data thus provided, it is possible to conceive that in general shape and treatment the Brahmanical temples of Varendra (Nothern Bengal) were not dıssımılar from the Buddhist temple at Budh Gaya, a monumental building of more than ordinary significance, and which lay in the course of the art current as it was carried eastward into Bengal.