Every alley and street in Old Dhaka has a different story, a different meaning of life. Every building stands as a remnant of history. Heritage tours are organized in Old Dhaka to introduce the lost heritage. Travel enthusiasts of all ages have seen the heritage, people’s lives and livelihoods there.
Save the Heritages of Bangladesh conducted a ‘Heritage Tour’ to discover and bring to the public the heritage of various places in the country, including Old Dhaka, and create awareness to protect them. On Saturday (April 5), the organization conducted its 100th heritage tour in the Farashganj, Sutrapur and Dholai Canal areas of Old Dhaka.
Their program began this morning with a cake cutting at Lalkuthi (North Brook Hall). After that, more than 150 members from Dhaka and outside participated in the march with banners and horse-drawn carriages. Starting from children and teenagers, there were also elderly people who had entered retirement.
During the tour, they visited Shiv Temple, Ruplal House, Mangalay, Basant Babu’s house, Boro Babu’s house, Bibika Rowja, Bihari Lal Jiu Temple, Sutrapur Zamindar’s house, Jalsaghar, Murapara Zamindar’s house in Dhaka, Rishikesh Babu’s house and Rokanpur Kazibari.
The cake is cut at the beginning of the tour.
A tour rally was organized.
What we saw on the tour:
Northbrook Hall or Lalkuthi
A beautiful building known as Lalkuthi, is located in the Waizghat area on the banks of the Buriganga River in Dhaka. It was originally built as a city auditorium and was named Northbrook Hall after the Governor General, Lord Northbrook, sometime between 1872 and 1876. Later, the hall was converted into a public library and a clubhouse called Johnson Hall was attached to it. The building’s architecture combines Mughal architecture with European Renaissance. Its horseshoe-shaped semicircular arches, a wide entrance on the north, four octagonal minarets on the steep north, low walls with decorative motifs and high pinnacles bear the hallmarks of Muslim heritage. The building’s massive, dark red dome, high pinnacle, and low walls are visible from the banks of the Buriganga River. The entire scene is grand and majestic. However, the many new structures built around it on the same premises, such as the conference center and the public auditorium, have somewhat diminished this attraction.
Shiva Temple
Rooplal House
Ruplal House is a beautiful and large building in Dhaka built in the early 19th century. It stands on the Buckland Embankment facing the tourist spot on the north bank of the Buriganga River.
It was built jointly by two wealthy business brothers, Ruplal Das and Raghunath Das, sons of Swarup Chandra of Farashganj in Old Dhaka. They purchased an old building from an Armenian businessman named Aratun in 1840. Then an architect from the Martin Company in Kolkata was appointed and the construction of Ruplal House was completed at a considerable cost. It is
A two-storey palace divided into two unequal blocks of slightly different architectural styles. It has a beautiful river in front of it which is about 91.44 meters long. Ruplal House is a fine example of the European architecture of the later Renaissance era introduced during the colonial period. Its ground plan is in the shape of the English letter ‘E’, with three arms extending towards the north or towards the city. The length of the middle arm is 18.30 meters. Ruplal House has a huge roof resting on a high, fluted, almost Corinthian-style pediment and above it was a pediment with Renaissance features. There are more than fifty rooms of various sizes in two blocks on the second floor. Among these, the more attractive room on the upper floor of the West Wing was a ballroom decorated with elegant decorations. The floor of this ballroom was wooden. There are two wide verandas on the north and south sides running the entire length of the block. These verandas on either side were supported on two semi-Corinthian columns or columns of matched brick. On these columns or columns were divided or trefoil arches. In the glorious days of the building, it was equal to Ahsan Manzil in terms of taste and elegance. In 1888, during the visit of Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy of India, to Dhaka, Ruplal organized a ball-dance in the ballroom of Ruplal House in his honor. It has recently been preserved by the Archaeological Department. However, parts of the building are now occupied by illegal occupants.
Mangalalaya
A very old house in Dhaka, named ‘Mangalalaya’. Unique construction style. Mangalalay is located in Farashganj, Old Dhaka. Farashganj was the commercial center of the French merchants of Dhaka in the 18th century. The initial information of the building is still visible in the relief work on the concrete. The name MONGALALAYA is written in Roman letters at the very top. The year of construction is also mentioned. Accordingly, it was built in 1915. According to historians, Mangalalay was built by Ashutosh Das. Like other landlord traders of Farashganj, he also did various businesses. He was a successful businessman and an amateur. He lived in this house with his family. The two-story building was decorated in various ways! The front of the building had detailed craftsmanship. There were multiple arches at the main entrance on the first floor. There was a round cartouche on each arch. Beautiful figurative work was done in high relief. There were three decorated triangular pediments on the roof. The main pediment, decorated in the French Rococo style, was in the middle. In its center, there was a high relief work of lime on an oval frame (cartouche). It depicted human faces. Thus, evidence of the artistic taste, architectural thinking and ability of that time was kept throughout the building. It is also known as a doll house by the locals because of the diverse figures of people in different parts of the house.
Basant Babu’s House
Basant Kumar Das was a native of Barisal. He moved to Dhaka at the age of 12. Later, he settled in Farashganj and prospered in business here. By the early 1920s, Basant Kumar had become an influential businessman in Dhaka. The locals named the road in Farashganj after him in his honor. This road is basically an Abaski area. The elite class of Dhaka used to live here. There are numerous traditional apnas on both sides of the road. This road was named after the famous businessman Basal Kumar Das in 1917.
Bada Babu’s House
House number 44 on BK Das Road is a barabari. Bikedas i.e. Basant Kumar Das and his brother Prasanna Kumar Das. Prasanna Kumar was the landlord of Barishal Baraghar Estate. It is said that in the early 20th century. He built a house in Dhaka to live in. That house is this barabari. This house of neo-classical design was built by Prasanna Kumar Das around 1905 or 1910. Among the special features of the design of this house can be mentioned French Rococo, multi-courtyard or multiple courtyards, elevated walkway. This house has a total of two buildings, three verandas. There are 9 to 10 rooms in total. The front part of the house is two-storey, the back is three-storey. It is said that some of the courtyards were for family members, some for the caretakers of the house.
Bibi Ka Rowja
The oldest Imambara in the capital is ‘Bibi Ka Rawza’ in Farashganj, Dhaka. It was built in 1600. This shrine is named after Bibi Ma Fatima (RA), the daughter of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the fourth Caliph of Islam, Hazrat Ali.
Bihari Lal Jiu Temple
Sutrapur Zamindar House
A beautiful building located on Revati Mohan Das Road (R. M. Das Road) in Sutrapur Thana, Old Dhaka. The building was built by the powerful Hindu Zamindar Revati Mohan Das in the early 20th century. It is included in the list of antiquities of the Department of Archaeology of Bangladesh. The owner of this house was the British-era Zamindar Roy Bahadur Satyendra Kumar Das. He became famous as a Zamindar, businessman, banker and press owner. He also served as the chairman of Dhaka Municipality. He paid for the installation of electric lights on Walter Road, for which a large part of Walter Road was named Revati Mohan Das Road or R. M. Das Road after his father, Revati Mohan Das. The house of Satyendra Kumar Das was known as ‘Zamidarbari’ to the locals
Lakshmi Villa
Farashganj and Shyambazar are witnesses to a lot of history. However, this house in Farashganj is unique. As I said earlier, Farashganj was the trading center of French merchants. And many wealthy Hindu merchants lived along this B.K. Das Road.
The name of the house in the picture is Lakshmi Villa. The ownership of the house was owned by Basant Kumar Das, a famous businessman of Barisal, famous for Chandradwip. B.K. Das Road is named after him. Basant Babu built this house around 1911. (I don’t know why it was written 1918 after the renovation) He lived with his family. There was no opportunity to go inside the house since it is private property. However, the most striking thing about the house is its Juliet balcony. From the story of Romeo and Juliet, this kind of balcony or veranda is called Juliet Balcony from where Juliet used to meet Romeo. This cantilever balcony was one of the most popular during the British rule.
This Lakshmi Villa holds a bitter memory of the partition. After the partition of 1947, Hindus from Pakistan and Muslims from India started leaving the country. Basantbabu’s family was severely affected by the riots of 1950, but still decided not to leave the country. In a news published in The Guardian, Basantbabu’s grandson Anjan said, “Grandfather never wanted to leave East Pakistan. Many people around us were leaving. But Grandfather said, if necessary, we will be the last residents to leave East Pakistan. But we had to leave.” They left the country in 1961 by exchanging Lakshmi Villa with Kolkata lawyer Asarul Hossain’s Hossain House in Shakespeare Sarani. But even after leaving the country, they could not enter the new address. Due to various complications, Das Babu’s family could only see Hossain House from the outside. Meanwhile, Asarul Hossain started living in Lakshmi Villa and around 1967 converted this house into a law firm.
Murapara Zamindar’s Dhaka House
Rishikesh Babu’s House
Kazi Bari Heritage Estate
Kazi Bari Estate. This house is more than two hundred years old. There is a map on the roof of the second floor of the house, just by looking at it you can understand how big the Kazi Bari Estate was. It is called a house of fourteen families. That is, Fourteen Houses. Marriages were held within these noble fourteen families at that time. A
Mir Elahi Baksh built this house in 1820. Then, when he took the job of Shahe Kazi or Town Judge under the British government, the name of this house gradually became Kazi Bari. This house mainly has traces of Mughal and British history. However, the mosque with a dome also bears some traces of the Sultanate period.
The outer quarters (Kachari Bari) of this haveli were the meeting room. When there was no Muslim court, the meeting room of this house was also used as a court room / courtroom. There are still 100-year-old furniture, Tejas paper, ivory boxes, oil lamps, baby wood couches, gramophones, old trunks, iron wood windows, etc. There are also old documents and writings written in Persian. A beautiful radio room can also be seen inside the Kazi house.
Corinthian architecture (a combination of Greek and Roman art with Western art) can be seen. There is also an inner palace in the Kazi house. There is also a dining room here.
The gift
We see the way…
We show the way…
Hello guides, let’s guide…
#localguidesconnect #localguides #letsguide #localguidesbd #BDLG #Bangladesh #localguidesbd
