ARCH-4521

ARCHITECTURE OF BENGAL- II
PART-B
Lecturer: Zannatul Ferdous

LCCTURE - 03
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Formation of new taste
(Socio-political context)

• The Style developed Under the Sultanate of

Lakhnauti, initially provincial governors of Delhi
bearing the title of ‘Malik’, around Tribeni,
Saptagram, Choto Pandua and Hugly.

• The Arabic word ‘Mamluk’ means owned,

basically they were slave soldiers; who had
begun their career as the military slave of some
powerful Arab amir. The majority of such slaves
were ethnic Turks.

• It was an era of continuous war of the Muslim

rulers against the Hindu Rajas and the political
environment was turbulent one.
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Architectural Style

The idea: Due to the direct political influence of Delhi, the architecture produced is a
compromise of local skills and treasures with the imperial Delhi model.

•Morphology: The buildings are multi-domed with horizontal cornice.

•The interior arrangement of the stone columns recalls local pillared halls of the
Hindu temple. The columns are monolithic(formed of a single large block of stone)with
different facets/surface in different sections.

•In the Mosque of Zafer Khan Gazi, Tribeni, the interior is strikingly exposed towards
the east as the front row columns directly sprang from the huge adjacent piers.
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Zafar Khan Gazi Mosque

Zafar Khan Ghazi Mosque and Dargah situated at Tribeni in Hughli district, West Bengal, India, are
considered to be among the earliest surviving Muslim monuments in Bengal. According to an
inscription, the mosque is dated 698 AH/1298 AD. Tribeni (junction of three rivers viz, the Ganga,
the Jamuna and the Sarasvati - hence the name) was an ancient holy place of the Hindus. The
Muslims conquered it during the early phase of their conquest of Bengal.

The mosque is an oblong structure measuring 23.38m x 10.53m externally. It is the earliest
surviving example of the brick-and-stone style introduced by the Muslims in Bengal in place of the
traditional Hindu style of laying rectangular cut stones one upon another without mortar. The
stones used in the mosque were originally materials from temples, as evidenced by figures of
Hindu deities carved on some pieces. The original structure has suffered reconstruction a number
of times.
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Zafar Khan Gazi Mosque

There are five arched entrances in the east wall. Stumpy hexagonal stone piers support the arches.
The mosque represents the multi-domed oblong type developed by the Muslims in Bengal in
which the number of domes on the roof equals the number of entrances in the east wall
multiplied by those on either side.

The north and south walls have two doors each. There are thus ten domes roofing the mosque.
The interior of the structure is broken into two longitudinal aisles and five short bays by means of
stone pillars, creating ten equal compartments. The brick-built domes rest on stone pillars and
pointed arches with brick pendentives at the corners.
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Zafar Khan Gazi Mosque

The silhouette of the successive pointed arches has added to the spaciousness and grandeur of the
mosque interior. Corresponding to the five entrances in the east, there are five mihrabs in the
west wall contained within multifoil arches. The mihrab wall shows sparse decoration within
panels. The cornice and the parapet of the structure are straight. The mosque follows the Bengali
type with only the prayer chamber without court, riwaq and minaret.

A significant feature of the mosque interior is that a brick wall up to the level of the arch-spring
has closed the bay at each end, north and south, across the middle. These are the only parts of the
mosque which show terracotta ornamentation. The southern part is in a fair state of preservation
and shows a panelled composition. The central panel is broken into two halves vertically by means
of rosettes within square frames - the lower depicting a swinging creeper with luxuriant leaf age
and the upper two half-arch motifs with a finial in the thick of shrubs and foliage. The flanking
panels are similarly disposed and ornamented. All the panels depict multifoil arches with finials.
The vegetal motifs betray local influence and speak of the Muslim adaptive spirit.
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Zafar Khan Gazi Mosque

The ornamentation of the northern bay wall is in ruins, but surviving traces show its dissimilarity
from the southern. The composition here shows two small vertical panels each containing a
multifoil arch with a finial from which hangs a chain ending in a round pendant. What is significant
about these bay walls is that they are completely incongruous with the mosque interior but their
ornamentation surprisingly resembles that in the bagha mosque (1524) in Rajshahi district.

Only yards away to the east of the mosque, beyond an open courtyard, stand two square rooms
aligned east-west side by side, the western housing two graves - those of Zafar Khan Ghazi and his
wife and the eastern showing four graves on a masonry platform.

The walls are built of old temple materials - rectangular stone pieces - and the rooms are without
a roof and open to the sky. A rectangular shallow niche enters them through a central door in the
north wall flanked on either side with a trefoil arch above. The northern door of the western room
is made up of a Hindu frame as shown by carved Hindu figures. The eastern room shows
sculptured scenes from the ramayana and the mahabharata. There are other stone sculptures
fixed at the plinth on the outer face. It is, however, surprising that the structure neither conforms
to a Hindu temple nor to a Muslim tomb. What is probable is that it was built on a makeshift plan
with reshuffled temple materials. The unsettled nature of Muslim occupation of the region at the
time supports such a suggestion. [Muhammad Hafizullah Khan]
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Bari Mosque

Bari Mosque an imposing structure of pre-Mughal period, stands at Chhota Pandua in the Hughli
District of West Bengal.

It is an oblong building measuring 70.41m x 12.5m and having no enclosed shan (courtyard) in
front. Two parallel rows of basalt pillars (1.83m high) divide the mosque into three aisles, resulting
in sixty-three bays. The roof of 63 domes, now lost, rested on the arcades and brick-pendentives.
The domes were arranged in three rows of 21 each in conformity with the alignment of the aisles.
The basalt pillars were reused from pre-Islamic structures and are not of uniform design; some
bear traces of Hindu or Buddhist imagery.
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Bari Mosque

The qibla wall has 21 mihrabs, of which the central one is the largest and most ornate, with an
outer frame textured with a grill pattern. A decorative cusped arch, designed and constructed in
the indigenous style of the pre-Sultanate period, connects the jambs of the frame. Rosette
medallions are fixed into the spandrels of the arch. Inset is a similar but smaller frame. The
concave interior is recessed in the framed space. Ornamental motifs decorate the wall of the
mihrab.
The mimbar on the right side of the central
mihrab is a throne-like structure of black basalt,
having a trefoil-arched canopy, which has a full-
blown lotus on the underside. Besides, bell-on-
chain, makara (a mythical figure combining a fish
with a crocodile), kirtimukha (stylised lion head)
and garland are some of the decorative motifs
found on the lithic elements quarried from
temple ruins. The basaltic stone pillars are
relieved by several horizontal bands of
ornamental patterns
 Mamluk Style (1204- 1338)
Bari Mosque

The mosque had 21 arched openings. Three more were provided on either side of the building to
give access to the aisles from the flanks. All these side openings except one have been sealed. As a
result, the mosque has now only 22 entrances from which its local name, Bais Darwaza,
originates.The absence of any inscription stands in the way of ascertaining either the name of the
builder or the date of construction of this mosque. Local tradition associates the mosque with
Shah Safiuddin, who, along with Zafar Khan Ghazi, is said to have invaded and conquered Pandua
at the behest of Firuz Shah (identified with Shmsuddin Firuz Shah).

The authenticity of this legendary account has not yet been substantiated. Some elements, such as
the use of red thin bricks for construction, the reportedly low hemispherical shape of the lost
domes of the roof, typical stone pillars in the liwan, utilisation of lithic materials quarried from
demolished temples and low pointed arched doorways etc have been taken to suggest an early
14th century date for the mosque. [Dipakranjan Das]