The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.12

v3.c30.s1.12

With the monuments of the Husain Shāh period (1493–1552) we are on firmer ground, the dates of the most important among them being established by the presence of inscriptions. These monuments include the *Chhotā Sonā Masjid* (Small Golden mosque) at Gaur, built by Walī Muhammad during the reign of Husain Shāh (a.d. 1493–1519); a mosque at Bāghā in the Rājshāhī district dating from 1523; the *Barā Sonā Masjid* (Great Golden mosque) at Gaur, completed by Nusrat Shāh in 1526; and the *Qadam Rasūl* mosque, completed by the same Emperor in 1530. Of these the mosque at Bāghā and the *Qadam Rasūl* are of brick and terracotta, and mainly interesting as illustrating the progressive decadence of buildings of that class, which become more and more flamboyant as time goes on, until eventually they are smothered in a medley of mechanical and tasteless patterns. The other two monuments are of brick, faced on the outside entirely, and on the inside partially with stone. Both derive their name of ‘golden’ from the gilding which once enriched their domes, and they resemble one another in other features too; notably, in the half stone, half brick arcading of the interior, in their multi-domed roofs, and in the schematic treatment of the mouldings on their exterior façades. There, however, the correspondence between them ends. The older mosque, though far the smaller, is the more elaborate of the two. Its length is less than half that of the other, and it possesses only five arched openings in front against the other’s eleven; but the mouldings of its cornice are duplicated and enriched, the monotony of the domes is broken by the insertion of a Bengali roof in their middle and the bareness of the stone walls is relieved by a wealth of foliate patterns carved in low relief. It must be confessed, however, that the effect produced by the addition of the Bengali roof is not a happy one, and the rich relief work, albeit in itself exquisitely executed, is too flat and characterless to redeem the design from mediocrity. The *Barā Sonā Masjid* has the merit of greater simplicity and impressiveness (Fergusson, indeed, calls it ‘perhaps the finest memorial now left in Gaur’) but the architect has made the mistake so commonly met with in Dravidian architecture of supposing that increased grandeur in a fabric can be produced by the mere reiteration of its parts; and, though the interior is not lacking in dignity, the building as a whole will not bear comparison with the great mosques in Hindūstān and Western India. Let it be added that the quadrangle in front of this mosque was some 200 feet square and was entered through arched gateways on its north, south and east sides, the stone facing of which was sparingly adorned, as was the masjid proper, with glazed tiles of various colours—green and blue, white and yellow and orange.