Thearchitecture of Bengal, which comprises the modern country ofBangladesh and theIndian states ofWest Bengal,Tripura,Assam'sBarak Valley and eastern part ofBihar andJharkhand, has a long and rich history, blending indigenous elements from theIndian subcontinent, with influences from different parts of the world. Bengali architecture includes ancient urban architecture, religious architecture, ruralvernacular architecture, colonialtownhouses andcountry houses and modern urban styles. Thebungalow style is a notable architectural export of Bengal. The corner towers of Bengali religious buildings were replicated in medieval Southeast Asia.Bengali curved roofs, suitable for the very heavy rains, were adopted into a distinct local style ofIndo-Islamic architecture, and used decoratively elsewhere in north India inMughal architecture.
Bengal is not rich in good stone for building, and traditional Bengali architecture mostly uses brick and wood, often reflecting the styles of the wood, bamboo and thatch styles of localvernacular architecture for houses. Decorative carved ormoulded plaques ofterracotta (the same material as the brick) are a special feature. The brick is extremely durable and disused ancient buildings were often used as a convenient source of materials by local people, often being stripped to their foundations over the centuries.
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Urbanization is recorded in the region since the first millennium BCE. This was part of the second wave of urban civilization in the Indian subcontinent, following the decline of theIndus Valley civilization.[citation needed] Ancient Bengal was part of a network of urban and trading hubs stretching toAncient Persia.[citation needed] The archaeological sites ofMahasthangarh, Paharpur,Wari-Bateshwar ruins,Chandraketugarh andMainamati provide evidence of a highly organized urban civilization in the region.Terracotta became a hallmark of Bengali construction, as the region lacked stone reserves. Bricks were produced with the clay of theBengal delta.[1]
Ancient Bengali architecture reached its pinnacle during thePala Empire (750–1120); this was Bengali-based and the last Buddhist imperial power in the Indian subcontinent. Most patronage was of Buddhistviharas, temples andstupas. Pala architecture influenced Tibetan and Southeast Asian architecture[citation needed]. The most famous monument built by the Pala emperors was theGrand Vihara of Somapura, now aUNESCO World Heritage Site. Historians believe Somapura was a model for the architects ofAngkor Wat in Cambodia.[2]
Bengal was one of thelast strongholds of Indian Buddhism in the medieval period, and Hindu temples before the Muslim conquest (starting in 1204) were relatively small. Most of the Hindu temples were built inGupta era,Shashanka,Pala andSena dynasty who ruled since the 5th century until the conquest. However, most of the temples are in ruins and relatively small. TheSena dynasty built the relatively modestDhakeshwari Temple inDhaka, although this has been greatly rebuilt, which is the national temple of Bangladesh now. The stone temple at Garui in Bardhaman district of West Bengal, was built in the 14th century.[3]
The termdeula,deul ordeoul is used for a style ofJain andHindu temple architecture of Bengal, where the temple lacks the usualmandapa beside the main shrine, and the main unit consists only of the shrine and adeul above it. The type arose between the 6th and 10th centuries, and most examples are now ruins; it was revived in the 16th to 19th century.[4] The later representatives of this style were generally smaller and included features influenced by Islamic architecture.[4]
Most temples surviving in reasonable condition date from about the 17th century onwards, after temple building revived; it had stopped after the Muslim conquest in the 13th century.[5] The roofing style ofBengali Hindu temple architecture is unique and closely related to the paddy roofed traditional building style of rural Bengal.[6] The "extensive improvisation within a local architectural idiom"[5] which the temples exhibit is often ascribed to a local shortage of expertBrahmin priests to provide the rather rigid guidance as to correct forms that governed temple architecture elsewhere. In the same way, the terracotta reliefs often depict secular subjects in a very lively fashion.
Roofing styles include thejor-bangla,do-chala,char-chala,at-chala, andek-ratna. Thedo-chala type has only two hanging roof tips on each side of a roof divided in the middle by a ridge-line; in the rarechar-chala type, the two roof halves are fused into one unit and have a dome-like shape; the double-storeyat-chala type has eight roof corners.[7][4]
Many of these temples are covered on the outer walls withterracotta (carved brick)reliefs.Bishnupur inWest Bengal has a remarkable set of 17th and 18th - century temples with a variety of roof styles built by theMalla dynasty.
In larger, and later, temples, small towers rise up from the centre or corners of the curving roof. These are straight-sided, often with conical roofs. They have little resemblance to a typical north Indianshikara temple tower. Thepancharatna ("five towers") andnavaratna ("nine towers") styles are varieties of this type.[4]
The temple structures contain gabled roofs which are colloquially called the chala, For example, a gabled roof with an eight sided pyramid structured roof will be called "ath chala" or literally the eight faces of the roof. And frequently there is more than one tower in the temple building. These are built of laterite and brick bringing them at the mercy of severe weather conditions of southern Bengal.Dakshineswar Kali Temple is a nine-spired temple[8] while the additional small temples ofShiva along the river bank are example of southern Bengal roof style though in much smaller dimension.
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Indo-Islamic architecture in the Bengali architecture can be seen from the 13th century, but before the Mughals has usually strongly reflected local traditions. The oldest survivingmosque was built during theDelhi Sultanate. The mosque architecture of the independentBengal Sultanate period (14th, 15 and 16th centuries) represents the most important element of the Islamic architecture of Bengal. This distinctive regional style drew its inspiration from the indigenous vernacular architecture of Bengal, including curved chala roofs, corner towers and complex floral carvings. Sultanate-era mosques featured multipledomes or a single dome, richly designedmihrabs andminbars and an absence ofminarets. While clay bricks and terracotta were the most widely used materials, stone was used from mines in theRarh region. The Sultanate style also includes gateways and bridges. The style is widely scattered across the region.[9]
Mughal Bengal saw the spread ofMughal architecture in the region, includingforts,havelis,gardens,caravanserais,hammams andfountains. Mughal Bengali mosques also developed a distinct provincial style.Dhaka andMurshidabad were the hubs of Mughal architecture. The Mughals copied the do-chala roof tradition in North India.[10]
TheBengal Sultanate (1352–1576) normally used brick as the primary construction material, as pre-Islamic buildings had done.[11] Stone had to be imported to most ofBengal, whereas clay for bricks is plentiful. But stone was used for columns and prominent details, often re-used from Hindu or Buddhist temples.[12] The early 15th centuryEklakhi Mausoleum atPandua, Malda or Adina, is often taken to be the earliest surviving square single-domed Islamic building in Bengal, the standard form of smaller mosques and mausoleums. But there is a small mosque at Molla Simla,Hooghly district, that is probably from 1375, earlier than the mausoleum.[13] The Eklakhi Mausoleum is large and has several features that were to become common in the Bengal style, including a slightly curvedcornice, large round decorativebuttresses and decoration in carvedterracotta brick.[14]
These features are also seen in theChoto Sona Mosque (around 1500), which is in stone, unusually for Bengal, but shares the style and mixes domes and a curving "paddy" roof based on village house roofs made of vegetable thatch. Such roofs feature even more strongly in laterBengal Hindu temple architecture, with types such as thedo-chala,Jor-bangla Style, andchar-chala.[15] For larger mosques, Bengali architects multiplied the numbers of domes, with a nine-domed formula (three rows of three) being one option, surviving in four examples, all 15th or 16th century and now in Bangladesh,[16] although there were others with larger numbers of domes.[17]
Buildings in the style are theNine Dome Mosque and theSixty Dome Mosque (completed 1459) and several other buildings in theMosque City of Bagerhat, an abandoned city in Bangladesh now featured as aUNESCO World Heritage Site. These show other distinctive features, such as a multiplicity of doors andmihrabs; the Sixty Dome Mosque has 26 doors (11 at the front, 7 on each side, and one in the rear). These increased the light and ventilation. Further mosques include theBaro Shona Masjid; thePathrail Mosque, theBagha Mosque, theDarasbari Mosque, and theKusumba Mosque. Single-domed mosques include theSingar Mosque, and theShankarpasha Shahi Masjid.
Both capitals of the Bengal Sultanate, firstPandua or Adina, then from 1450Gauda or Gaur, started to be abandoned soon after the conquest of the sultanate by the Mughals in 1576, leaving many grand buildings, mostly religious. The materials from secular buildings were recycled by builders in later periods.[11] While minarets are conspicuously absent in most mosques, theFiroz Minar was built in Gauda to commemorate Bengali military victories.
The ruinedAdina Mosque (1374–75) is very large, which is unusual in Bengal, with abarrel vaulted central hall flanked by hypostyle areas. It is said to be the largest mosque in the sub-continent, and modeled after theAyvan-e Kasra of Ctesiphon, Iraq, as well as theUmayyad Mosque of Damascus.[18] The heavy rainfall in Bengal necessitated large roofed spaces, and the nine-domed mosque, which allowed a large area to be covered, was more popular there than anywhere else.[19] After the Islamic consolidation of Bengal was complete, some local features continued, especially in smaller buildings, but the Mughals used their usual style in imperial commissions.[11]
![The Naulakha Pavilion at the Lahore Fort in Pakistan displays the distinct Bengali Do-chala style roof.[20]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aNaulakha_Pavilion_in_Lahore_Fort.jpg)
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The period ofBritish rule saw wealthy Bengali families, owners ofzamindar estates and wealthy traders, employing European architects to design houses and palaces. TheIndo-Saracenic style was strongly prevalent in the region, but versions of EuropeanNeo-Classical architecture were also found, especially in or near trading cities. While most rural estates featured an elegantcountry house, the cities ofCalcutta,Dacca,Panam andChittagong had widespread 19th and early 20th century urban architecture, comparable to London,Sydney or other cities of theBritish Empire.Art deco influences began in Calcutta in the 1930s.
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Indo-Saracenic architecture can be seen in theAhsan Manzil andCurzon Hall in Dhaka,Chittagong Court Building in Chittagong, andHazarduari Palace in Murshidabad. TheVictoria Memorial in Kolkata, designed byVincent Esch also has Indo-Saracenic features, possibly inspired from the Taj Mahal.
The origin of thebungalow has its roots in the vernacular architecture of Bengal.[22] The termbaṅgalo, meaning "Bengali" and usedelliptically for a "house in the Bengal style".[23] Such houses were traditionally small, only one storey and detached, and had a wideveranda were adapted by the British, who used them as houses for colonial administrators in summer retreats in the Himalayas and in compounds outside Indian cities.[24]The Bungalow style houses are still very popular in the rural Bengal. In the rural areas of Bangladesh, it is often called “Bangla Ghar” (Bengali Style House). The main construction material used in modern time is corrugated steel sheets. Previously they had been constructed from wood, bamboo and a kind of straw called “Khar”. Khar was used in the roof of the Bungalow house and kept the house cold during hot summer days. Another roofing material for Bungalow houses has been red clay tiles.
Art deco, which originated after the first World war, became prevalent all over India. Art deco is seen in the bungalows of Kolkata as well, which are being destroyed and replaced by high-rise buildings.[21][25][26] Art Deco influences continued in Chittagong during the 1950s.
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East Pakistan was the center of the Bengali modernist movement started byMuzharul Islam. Many renowned global architects worked in the region during the 1960s, includingLouis Kahn,Richard Neutra,Stanley Tigerman,Paul Rudolph,Robert Boughey andKonstantinos Doxiadis. Louis Kahn designed theJatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, the preeminent symbol of modern Bangladeshi architecture. Thecityscapes of modern Bengali cities are dominated by midsized skyscrapers and often called concrete jungles. Architecture services form a significant part of urban economies in the region, with acclaimed architects such asRafiq Azam.
In 2015,Marina Tabassum andKashef Mahboob Chowdhury were declared winners of theAga Khan Award for Architecture for their mosque and community center designs respectively, which were inspired by the region's ancient heritage.[27]
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