Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c38.3

c38.3

IN view of the large extent of country represented by Bengal and the territory adjacent to it, the extreme eastern position of India is not rich in buildings of an architectural character. There are the records of more than one great civilization, which flourished within this region, but the structural remains of these are extremely scanty. For this the nature of the soil and the climate are mainly responsible : both conditions encourage the rapid growth of jungle vegetation, and once a building ceases to be cared for, the creeping shrubs and trees speedily take charge, soon to tear it to pieces so that before long it becomes merely an unrecognizable mound of ruin. At the same time the destruction brought about by the hand of man cannot be omitted from any account of the architecture of this portion of the country, as the remains of some of the finest buildings amply testify. In no part of India are the two great cultural movements, the Hindu and the Muhammedan and the manner in which the one superseded the other more vividly illustrated than in some of the ancient remains of Bengal, as for instance in the ruined Adina Masjid, built by Sekander Shah (1358-89) at his new capital of Pandua, as this great congregational mosque was constructed almost entirely of materials taken from the demolished city of Lakhnauti, the capital of the Hindu dynasty of the Senas.