The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c26.s8.t2.3

c26.s8.t2.3

***Bangal.*** Although Bangal was so rich and her artists possessed of an inborn sense of art and adaptability of character, the local Sultans did not succeed in developing a first-rate style of architecture. Their buildings were largely made of bricks and stone was very sparingly used. The architecture was characterised by "the use of pointed arches on short pillars and the Muslim's adaptation of the traditional Hindu temple style of curvilinear cornices copied from the bamboo structures, and of beautifully carved Hindu symbolic decorative designs like the lotus." The ruins of these buildings are found at Gaur or Lakhanauti, Tribeni and Pandua. The earliest specimens of the Bangal style of architecture are the tomb and mosque of Zafar Khan Ghazi, which were built mostly out of the materials from the Hindu temples. The well-known Adina Masjid was built by Sikandar Shah at Pandua in the second half of the fourteenth century. It was a very huge and ambitious structure, and, though considered in Bangal as one of the wonders of the world, its design, in the opinion of Sir John Marshall, is "far from being worthy of its size." Another beautiful building is the tomb of Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Shah, which is considered to be one of the finest tombs in Bangal. The Dakhil Darwaza at Gaur is "as perfect an example of brick structure as can be found anywhere in the world." The other well-known structures are the Lotan Masjid, the Bara Sona Masjid, the Chhota Sona Masjid and the Qadam Rasul mosque. Of these the Bara Sona Masjid “has the merit of greater simplicity and impressiveness.” The Bangal style is a class by itself and is inferior to most of the other provincial styles in design, execution, finish and decoration.