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Two Bengal Inscriptions in the Collection of the British Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Syed Mahmudul Hasan
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Extract

In pursuit of my research on the development of mosque architecture with special reference to pre-Mughal Bengal, I came across a number of elegantly carved inscriptions on black basalt in the British Museum. Some of them are in an excellent state of preservation, others merely fragmentary. On the basis of their calligraphic style and material contents, the undated as well as the dated inscriptions have been assigned to the Sultanate of Bengal (a.d. 1338–1538). In the following pages two of these inscriptions are republished with facsimiles.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 98 , Issue 2 , April 1966 , pp. 141 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1966

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References

page 141 note 1 The article is based on part of my thesis, where detailed discussions will be found: The development of mosque architecture with special reference to pre-Mughal Bengal, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1965Google Scholar.

page 141 note 2 Francklin, W., Ruins of Gaur, 1810–1812, India Office Library, MS 19, p. 32Google Scholar.

page 142 note 1 ibid., pp. 32–3.

page 142 note 2 Prasād, Shyām, Aḥwāl Gaur wa Paṅḍua, Ethe's Catalogue of Persian MSS, Vol. I, Oxford, 1903, p. 1541Google Scholar. No. 28, India Office Library, No. 2892, careless Nasta'liq, 11½ × 7⅝ in. See Dani, A. H., Muslim architecture of Bengal, Dacca, 1960, Appendix, p. 17Google Scholar.

page 142 note 3 op. cit., p. 32.

page 142 note 4 Grote, A., Annotations to Ravenshaw's Gaur: its ruins and inscriptions, London, 1878Google Scholar, ed. C. Ravenshaw, p. 30. Incidentally, Ravenshaw did not notice the mosque, most probably, as put by Cunningham, (ASR, XV, p. 60)Google Scholar, “because the greater part of the front has now fallen down”.

page 142 note 5 loc. cit.

page 142 note 6 Francklin, op. cit., p. 29.

page 142 note 7 ibid., p. 28.

page 143 note 1 Beveridge, H., “Major Francklin's MS description of Gaur”, JASB, LXIII, 1894, p. 88Google Scholar.

page 143 note 2 Ravenshaw, H., Gaur: Its ruins and inscriptions, London, 1878, p. 56Google Scholar.

page 143 note 3 ASR, XV, p. 61; ‘Abid’ Khan, Ali, Memoirs of Gaur and Pandua, ed. Stapleton, H. E., Calcutta, 1931, p. 69Google Scholar; A. H. Dani, op. cit, pp. 121–2; Saraswati, S. K., “Indo-Muslim Architecture of Bengal”, J. Ind. Soc. Or. Art, IX, 1941, p. 22Google Scholar; Chakravarti, M. N., “Pre-Mughal Architecture of Bengal,” JASB, VI, 1910, p. 26Google Scholar.

page 143 note 4 Creighton, H., The ruins of Gour, described and represented in eighteen views with a topographical map, London, 1817, Pl XVGoogle Scholar. See also Orme, R., Gowre: description of its ruins with four inscriptions taken in the Arabic. India Office Library, Orme MSS 65.25, pp. 171–7Google Scholar (reproduced in Glazier, E. G., A report on the District of Rungpore, Calcutta, 1873Google Scholar, cited by Stapleton, in his edition of ‘Abid’ Ali's Memoirs, p. 63, n. 1)Google Scholar; Cotton, H. E. A., “The Daniells in India”, Bengal Past and Present, XXV, Part I, Series No. 49Google Scholar.

page 143 note 5 op. cit., p. 30.

page 144 note 1 ASR, XV, p. 61.

page 144 note 2 op. cit., pp. 121–2.

page 144 note 3 loc. cit.

page 144 note 4 op. cit., Pl. XXII.

page 144 note 5 ASR, XV, pp. 60–1; Francklin, op. cit, p. 32.

page 144 note 6 Pemberton, J. J., Geographical and statistical report of the District of Maldah, Calcutta, 1854Google Scholar, topographical map of the station of Malda, its vicinity and the ruins of Gaur, surveyed in the season 1847–48, does not show the location of this mosque. See Creighton's, map of Gaur surveyed in 1801 and ASR, XV, Pl. XIIIGoogle Scholar.

page 145 note 1 Creighton, op. cit, PI. XII. See also Ahmed, S., Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. IV, Varendra Research Museum, Rajshahi, East Pakistan, 1960, pp. 106–9Google Scholar; Blochmann, H., “Contributions to the Geography and History of Bengal (Muhammadan Period)”, JASB, 44, 1, 1873, No. 3, p. 277Google Scholar.

page 145 note 2 ASR, XV, p. 61.

page 145 note 3 op. cit., pp. 22, 32, pl. 48, No. 6.

page 145 note 4 ibid., p. 30. See also Beveridge, op. cit., p. 89.

page 146 note 1 Horn, P., “Muhammadan Inscriptions from Bengal”, Epigraphia Indica, II, pp. 284–8Google Scholar. He reads the date as the 13th day of Ramadhan, A.H. 885, corresponding to 16 Nov. 1480. Ahmed, op. cit, pp. 106–8. The date should be 21 November, not 26 November as he states.

page 146 note 2 Grote, , Ravenshaw's Gaur, p. 56, nGoogle Scholar. Curiously enough Ahmed has omitted this, although it was published by Grote without any facsimile.

page 147 note 1 Grote quotes Francklin in annotating the Tāntīpārā Masjid, but the inscription, bearing the date A.H. 880, has been corrected to A.H. 883, belonging to the Chāmkaṭṭi Masjid, as shown in the first part of the article: Ravenshaw, op. cit., p. 30.

page 147 note 2 Francklin, op. cit., pp. 28–9, 32–3. Of the two other inscriptions, now in the British Museum, one has been ascribed to the Masjid, Chāmkaṭṭi, as discussed above, and the other has been noticed by me in Asian Review, 08, 1965Google Scholar: “A Firuz Shah II Fragment (A.H. 892–96/A.D. 1486–90)”.

page 147 note 3 op. cit., pp. 88–9.

page 147 note 4 See p. 145, n. 1; Ravenshaw, p. 22, pi. 48, no. 6.