Bengali roof

Facade of the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur (detail)

The Bengali roof ( Bengali bangaldar ) is a domed roof shape with drawn-down corners that is widespread in the late Mughal and Rajput architecture of northern India. According to the current state of knowledge, it can be assumed that stone roofs of this type did not appear until the 16th century and can be traced back to rural models with thatched or reed roofs in the rainy regions of Bengal .

description

Characteristic features of the Bengali roofs are the broad (semi) dome-like shape of the roof and its protrusions drawn down in the corners. A distinction is made between several types: The do-shala type has only two hanging roof peaks on each side of a roof divided in the middle by a ridge-like ridge; In the rare char-shala type, the two halves of the roof are fused into one unit and have a dome-like shape; the two-storey at-shala type has two four (= eight) roof corners.

history

Such roof shapes are unknown in early Indian architecture and first appeared in stone buildings in Bengal in the 16th century; The mausoleum of Fath-Khan , the son of a general of the Mughal ruler Aurangzebs , in the Bengali ruined city of Gaur is sometimes mentioned as the earliest example , but some Bengali temples are at least the same old or even a few decades older. Possibly existing rural buildings with thatched or reed roofs hanging in the corners have not been preserved.

distribution

Two of the first Mughal buildings with echoes of Bengali roof shapes are the two outbuildings of his private palace ( Khas Mahal ) in the Red Fort of Agra, built by Shah Jahan around 1635 for two of his daughters . A few decades later, his son Aurangzeb had the roof of the Pearl Mosque ( Moti Masjid ) in the Red Fort of Delhi designed in a similar way. But above all in the architecture of the Rajput princes and merchants of Rajasthan , this motif unfolded to its full bloom: here are above all the countless jaroka roofs of the 'Palace of the Winds' ( Hawa Mahal ) in Jaipur, built in 1799, and the roofs of the houses of the wealthy merchants ( havelis ) in Jaisalmer , Mandawa and elsewhere. Also some of the later, i.e. H. Memorial pavilions ( chattris ) built in the 18th and 19th centuries over the cremation sites of the Hindu princes Jaisalmers and their family members are provided with roofs of this type. Likewise, the builders of many Sikh temples have used this element since the 19th century to crown their gurdwaras - above all Maharajah Ranjit Singh at the Golden Temple of Amritsar .