Adina Masjid , "The Visual Declaration of Victory " By Sikandar Shah

Built by Sikandar Shah, the second sultan of the Ilyas dynasty, the Adina mosque is one of the biggest mosques to be worked in the subcontinent and the main hypo style mosque in Bengal. Found twelve miles from the town of Malda and along a noteworthy street prompting north Bengal, the sultan most likely manufactured it as a visual declaration of his triumph over the Delhi ruler, Firuz Shah Tughluq. The mosque is for the most part in ruins today following the harms sustained during the earthquakes  in the early 19th centuries & 20th centuries .  Comparative in plan to the Great Mosque of Damascus, it is a rectangular, hypostyle structure, with an open focal patio. Remotely it gauges 524' x 322' (154.3 x 87m) with the more drawn out side running north-south, while the yard estimates 426'- 6"x147'- 7"(130 x 45m). The petition lobby is situated toward the west, and is partitioned into two symmetrical wings by a focal nave (78'x 34' and 64' high) that was initially secured by a pointed barrel vault. The high focal vaulted nave might be followed to Persian forerunners, Taq-I-Kisra, a pre-Muslim landmark at Ctesiph

on. The petition corridor is five walkways profound, while the north, south and east houses around the patio comprise of triple paths. Altogether, these passageways had 260 columns and 387 domed straights. The inside of the yard is a constant façade of 92 curves surmounted by a parapet, past which the arches of the narrows can be seen.

The main entrance of the mosque comprises of three curves that open on the southeastern corner. Today it must be entered from the east through a modest arch opening . Another three little doorways are in the northwestern divider, two of which prompt the Badshah-ka-takht, a private love zone for the rulers and the women. The outside of the west divider is the best-protected area of the mosque and is looked with smooth blue-dim basalt up to a tallness of 11'. A great part of the finely worked basalt was taken from the before Hindu working at Lakhnauti or different territories close-by. Evidence of this is in the stones inserted in spots like the minbar and dividers of the Badshah-ka-takht (King's position of authority) that show cut figures. The vast majority of the upper piece of the building - the curves and the vaults - is of block. At the edges of its outside dividers are round stone-confronted, daze connected with turrets. The lower eleven feet of the sections are looked with stone while the upper parts are verbalized with perfectly shaped block forms up to the midpoint, past which the surface because of disintegration winds up smooth.The prayer hall is a progression of curves mounted on short, incredible columns with square plinths and profound square capitals. The sections supporting the corridor of the Badshah-ka-takht are of more typical extents, with agile decreased shafts and capitals in the state of open lotus blossoms, which are gotten from Hindu structures. The focal mihrab is situated toward the finish of the focal nave with a littler extra mihrab and a stone minbar flanking it. A progression of optional mihrabs keeps running along the entire western divider.

Altogether, the 39 mihrabs, the minbar and different ornamentations are thoroughly Islamic in their general origination however Hindu in every one of the points of interest: little scalloped segments and plinths in the state of lotus blossoms, corbels, trilobate curves each with its sharp end cuspidated with a vase of blooms, volutes speaking to leaves, rhomboid tablets and friezes of lotus petals. Alongside the Hindu themes, the inside of the mihrab specialty is isolated into boards containing the Islamic theme of the 'hanging light' ordinarily utilized in Bengal and is believed to be the visual portrayal of Surah Al-Nur (Chapter of Light in the Quran).

The Badshah-ka-takht is a square structure with a L-formed incline on its north; on its east are two entryways that prompt the raised takht (throne) inside. One of the entryways was initially cut for a Hindu sanctuary. The square structure was partitioned into nine inlets with nine vaults upheld in stone segments. This chamber is currently accepted to house the tomb of Sikander Shah. Since this chamber was the sole access to the takht, it is exceedingly improbable that it was implied as an entombment chamber. The L-formed incline likewise refutes the idea of this as an internment chamber since it takes after an imperial access to a fortification. Subsequently, the structure must have become  a makeshift grave because of the ruler's untimely death.

 Sources: 

Alfieri, Bianca Maria. Islamic Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2000. 83-4.

Banerji, Naseem Ahmed. The Architecture of the Adina Mosque  in Pandua, malda  India: Medieval Tradition and Innovation. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2002. 11, 71.

Asher, Catherine B. "Stock of Key Monuments". Workmanship and Archeology Research Papers: The Islamic Heritage of Bengal. Paris: UNESCO, 1984. 109.

Hasan, S.M. The Adina Masjid at Hazrat Pandua. Dhaka: Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, 1980. 17.