Bengalis III

1352-1576 CE

From 1352 to 1576 CE, the Bengalis flourished under sultans who cared more for poetry than orthodoxy — the Ilyas Shahi and Hussain Shahi dynasties transforming Bengal into a Muslim kingdom that patronized Sanskrit alongside Persian, their capital at Gaur adorning itself with mosques built from temple stones. The wealth of rice and silk made Bengal a prize; Mughal conquest ended independence but not prosperity.