Bangladeshi Architecture - Tomb Architecture of Bangladesh

Tomb Architecture of Bangladesh

Tomb architecture is a type of building erected over the graves. The extant tombs in Bengal are small in number but show significant variety and interesting adaptation of the conventional Islamic form to regional tastes and requirements. As in other Muslim countries, hadith injunctions to practise taswiyat al-qubur, that is, to make the tomb level with the surrounding earth, did not prevent the raising of a grave above the ground level, erection of brick or stone cenotaphs, or the building of monumental mausoleums in Bengal. Architectural and epigraphic remains of the pre-Mughal and Mughal periods point to the burial places of three groups of people- conquerors and nobility, saints, and ghazis (victors in religious wars). The Arabic word qabr is used for a grave; the Bengali word samadhi for a tomb; and the Persian term mazar is an honorific appellation for the tomb of a person of high rank. Tombs of saints and ghazis, when attached to dargah complexes, are called by the comprehensive term dargah; the Persian term astana for a holy tomb is not uncommon in Bengal. Funerary inscriptions contain such terms as maqbara, turba, qabr, gunbad, rawza.

Tombs in Bengal may be classified under two chronological periods: Sultanate or pre-Mughal, and Mughal.