Editing Architecture of India (section)

==== Bengal Sultanate ====
The style of the [[Bengal Sultanate]] mostly used brick, with characteristic features being indigenous Bengali elements, such as curved roofs, corner towers and complex [[terracotta]] ornamentation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Architecture |title=Architecture |website=Banglapedia |access-date=30 December 2017 |archive-date=16 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116231638/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Architecture |url-status=live }}</ref> which were with blended. One feature in the sultanate was the relative absence of minarets.<ref name="Hasan, Perween 2007 p. 23-27">Hasan, Perween (2007). Sultans and Mosques: The Early Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh. United Kingdom: I.B. Tauris. p. 23–27. {{ISBN|1-84511-381-0}}.</ref> Many small and medium-sized medieval mosques, with multiple domes and artistic [[Niche (architecture)|niche]] [[mihrab]]s, were constructed throughout the region.<ref name="Hasan, Perween 2007 p. 23-27" />[[File:Firoze Minar at Gaur in Malda district 10.jpg|left|thumb|[[Firoz Minar|Firoze Minar]] at [[Gauḍa (city)|Gaur]]]]These features are also seen in the [[Choto 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 later [[Bengal temple architecture|Bengal Hindu temple architecture]], with types of style such as the [[do-chala]], [[Jor-bangla Style]], and [[char-chala]].<ref>Hasan, 23–25</ref>  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,<ref>Hasan, 41–44</ref> although there were others with larger numbers of domes.<ref>Hasan, 44–49</ref>
[[File:Adina Mosque at Malda district of West Bengal 13.jpg|thumb|Interior of the [[hypostyle]] hall of the [[Adina Mosque]]]]
The largest mosque in the Indian subcontinent was the 14th century [[Adina Mosque]]. Built of stone demolished from temples, it featured a monumental ribbed barrel vault over the central nave, the first such giant vault used anywhere in the subcontinent. The mosque was modelled on the imperial [[Sasanian|Sassanian]] style of Persia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bengal|title=BENGAL – Encyclopaedia Iranica|website=Iranicaonline.org|access-date=30 December 2017|archive-date=3 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103102347/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bengal|url-status=live}}</ref> The Sultanate style flourished between the 14th and 16th centuries. A provincial style influenced by North India evolved in Mughal Bengal during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Mughals also copied the Bengali [[do-chala]] roof tradition for mausoleums{{which|date=June 2020}} in North India.<ref>Petersen, Andrew (2002). Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. Routledge. pp. 33–35. {{ISBN|1-134-61366-0}}.</ref>

Although the description in [[Pandua, Hooghly|Pandua]], the ancient capital, shows mainly Persian culture in courts, we find one of the first attempts at fusing together the Islamic and Bengali style of architecture under [[Ilyas Shahi dynasty]] who ruled then. Under [[Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah|Jalaludin]] emerged the 'Bengal' style of mosques. With Jalaludin's reign we see the beginnings of a trend of Muslim ruling dynasty that grounded itself in local culture rather than seeking legitimacy from Delhi or Mecca. Upon his return to Delhi from his first Bengal expedition, Firoz Shah Tughlaq built Kotla Mosque, which bear a striking resemblance to the Bengal style.