The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.3

v3.c30.s1.3

In India, as in Persia and ‘Irāq, brick had been used as a building material almost from time immemorial, and even as early as the Gupta period the art of chiselling wall surfaces and of beautifying them with carvings in relief had reached a high state of perfection. We need not wonder, therefore, at the exquisite craftsmanship which the early Muhammadan buildings of India exhibit in their brickwork. But there is one all-important feature, as we have already seen, in which the indigenous architecture of the Peninsula, whether of brick or stone, differed fundamentally from Islamic. Save on the rarest occasions it made no use of any other binding material for its masonry but mud, and as a consequence found itself unable to aspire to any of those spacious effects which the arch and vault and dome subsequently made possible. In Multān and Delhi, fortunately, and wherever else Islamic traditions established themselves in sufficient strength, these limitations of indigenous building made little or no impression upon the succeeding styles of the Muslims. But in the more distant parts of the Empire, where the conquerors were relatively few in number and little in touch with the outer world of Islam, their architecture took its character largely from the pre-existing monuments of the locality. This is a fact that comes out prominently if we turn our eyes from the plains of the Punjab to the far-off Province of Bengal, which was annexed by Muhammad Bakhtyār Khān as early as 1198–99, within five years, that is to say, of the conquest of Delhi itself. In this low-lying and tropical country, the destructive forces of nature and the still more destructive agency of man have spared few monuments of the Hindu period, but on the strength of such scanty remains as have survived and from the indications afforded by later examples it may safely be inferred that, although stone was freely employed wherever it could be procured, brick, timber and bamboo were the principal building materials in use; and that among the most salient features of this older Bengal architecture were a peculiar form of curvilinear roof, commonly known as Bengali, square brick pillars of stunted proportions as well as more slender ones of stone, and carved or moulded surface decorations of almost ultra-refined elegance. It is safe to infer also that pointed arches of small dimensions constructed on the corbel system were not unknown to the Bengalis in the pre-Muslim days. These were the main characteristics of the style which the Muhammadans found prevalent on their arrival, and which, with the help of their own traditions, they proceeded forthwith to develop and expand.