"The Shat Gambuj Mosque"
The ‘Shat Gambuj Mosque’ in Bagerhat is such a heritage. It
became a UNESCO. World Heritage Site in 1985. Originally, the historic Mosque City
was known as ‘ Khalifatabad’. It is situated at
the outskirts of Bagerhat town not very far from the
dense mangrove forest of the Sundarbans. Khalifatabad was a Muslim colony. It was founded
by the Turkish general, a saint warrior Ulugh Khan Jahan in the 15th century.
The infrastructure of the city reveals significant technical skills in many
mosques as well as early Islamic monuments. Baked bricks are used for the construction of the
buildings. The planning of the city is distinctly dominated by Islamic
architecture and the decorations are a combination of Mughal and Turkish
architecture. 126 English For Today Khan Jahan built a network of roads, bridges, public
buildings and reservoirs to make the city habitable. There are about 360 mosques in the city.
Among them the most remarkable is the multi-domed Shat Gombuj Mosque. The mosque
is unique in the sense that it has 60 pillars that support the roof, with 77
low height domes. The 4
towers at 4 corners have smaller domes on the roof as well.
The vast prayer hall has 11 arched doorways on the east and 7 each on the north and
south for light and ventilation. It has 7 aisles running along the length of the
mosque and 11 deep curves between the slender stone columns. These columns support the
curving arches
created by the domes. The thickness of the arches is 6 feet
and have slightly narrowing hollow and round wall. The west wall in the interior has 11 ‘mihrabs’ (niche in
mosque pointing towards Makkah). These mihrabs are decorated with stonework and
terracotta. The floor of the mosque is made of brick. Besides being used as a prayer hall, Khan Jahan used the
mosque as his court also.
Today, it is one of the greatest tourist attractions
and one of the best architectural
"The Sompapura Mahavihara"
Paharpur is an important archaeological site situated in a
village named ‘Paharpur’ in Naogaon district of northern Bangladesh. Naogoan is mainly plain
land but in the middle of it stood a hill covered with jungle. When the jungle was
cleared and the hill
excavated, there emerged a lofty ruin of an ancient temple.
The temple is about 24 metre high from the surrounding level. ‘Pahar’ means hill. Hence
is the name Paharpur. The Paharpur site has been excavated and re-excavated a
number of times by archaeologists. Sir Alexander visited the place in 1879.
Cunningham intended to
carry out an extensive excavation but was prevented by the
land owner. Nevertheless, he was satisfied with whatever excavation he was permitted
to carry on. He discovered the ruins of a square tower of 22 feet side with
a projection in the middle of each side from the top of the central hill. The site was
declared to be protected by the Archaeological Survey of India in 1919 under the Ancient
Monuments Systematic and regular excavation started jointly by
Archaeological Survey of India, and Varendra Research Society of Rajshahi and Kolkata ( at that
time known as Calcutta)
University in 1923. They excavated the south-west corner of
the monastery. Next in 1925-26, R D Banerjee excavated the northern part of the
central mound. From 1926-27 onward excavation was carried out under the supervision of
KN Dikshit. The Department of Archaeology of Bangladesh brought the site under
further
excavation after independence. The operations took place in
two phases. The first phase was initiated in 1981-82 and continued to 1984-1985.
The second phase was started in 1988-89 and continued to 1990-91.Pre-liberation expeditions have revealed the architectural
remains of a vast Buddhist monastery, the Somapura Mahavihara. It is dominated by the
central shrine,attracting immediate attention by its lofty height and
unusual architectural design. Somapura Mahavihara was one of the most famous Buddhist
institutions for monks of ancient Bengal and in southern Asia.
The excavated complex at Paharpur has been
identified with the Somapura Mahavihara built by the second
Pala king Dharmapala (781-821 AD). Some clay seals from the ruins bear the
inscription. The Pala rulers were devout Buddhists and they founded a
number of monasteriesthroughout their growing empire. Some of them became great
centres of learning and their reputation quickly spread throughout Asia.
Somapura Mahavihara's close relationship with the ruling dynasty implied that it shared
the political ups and downs of its benefactors.