Dhaka Guide Part 2 – MUSLIM MONUMENTS OF DHAKA

Charming is thy glory and attractive thydemeanour, Thou art the epitome of the prosperous life of the Mughal days. Thy outward behaviour is different from what thou concealest, In thy acts are hidden the cultures of Asia. Dhaka, the Garden City, the Queen (of the cities) of the East.

Thus sang a bard by the name of Khalid Bengali in the early part of the 20th century in a poem, which one would like to regard as an ode and a fitting tribute to the splendour, grandeur, beauty and magnificence of the city of Dhaka or Jahangirnagar.

Dhaka has figured prominently in the writings of various authors and travelers from where we can get a glimpse of old Dhaka. It is generally known that the celebrated capital of the Mughal Province of Bengal, Dhaka, came to limelight in the 17th century when Islam Khan. Governor under Emperor Jahangir transferred the capital from Rajmahal to Dhaka. Thomas Roe mentioned that Dhaka was “a chief city” of Bengal. Dwelling on the building art, W. Terry states that “the materials of their best buildings are brick or stone, well-squared and composed. The Mahometans have faire churches which they call mosquits, built of stone.” The mosques referred to by Terry are not built of stone, but by bricks.

There is no doubt that the golden period of Dhaka dawned with the Viceroyalty of Nawab Shaista Khan in 1664. The extra-ordinary pomp and grandeur of the then Dhaka might be gleaned from the pages of William Hedges’ Diary, written in 1682. “At 9 in the morning I went to wait on the Nabob, who after one- fourth hour’s attendance, sent officers to bring me into his presence, being sat upon a large canopy of state made of crimson velvet, richly embroidered with gold and silver fringes, supported by four bamboos plaited over the gold”.

Bradley-Bin in his Romance of an Eastern Capital wrote. “It is pre-eminently a Mussalman city-a city of mosques built by the faithful.” The city of Dhaka, it must be observed, had more than one period of decay. During the reign of Emperor Alumgir its splendour was at the height, and judging from the magnificence of many of the ruins both in the heart of the present city and its environs, “such as bridges, brick causeways, mosques, serais, gate-ways, palaces and gardens, most of them now over-grown with woods, it must have vied in extent and richness with many of the great cities we know of, not excepting Gour.”

Bishop Heber, who paid a visit to Dhaka in 1824 considered it as a wreck of its former grandeur, all the noble edifices having sunk into shapeless ruins, overgrown with jungle. However, regarding Fort Aurangabad, he mentions, “The Castle which I noticed and which used to be the palace, is of brick, yet showing some traces of the plaster which has covered it. The architecture is precisely that of the Kremlin of Moscow.” It is, however, hard to compare Mughal style of building with European architecture. Charles D’Oyly, the District Magistrate of Dhaka in the early 19th century, preserved the grandeur and magnificence of the Mughal monuments of Dhaka through his beautiful paintings for posterity.

Though Dhaka appears to be pre-eminently a Mughal city, its recorded history is traced back to the pre-Muslim times. N.K. Bhattasali is of opinion that Dhaka is an old city, older than that of the Mughals us several iconographical objects of the Buddhist and Brahmanical periods, especially sculptures, have been found in and around Dhaka city.

Dhaka came into the limelight of history even during pre-Mughal days. that is in the 15th century, as attested by a number of architectural monuments, particularly mosques, forts, gateways. etc. Some of the pre-Mughal edifices which have defied the onslaught of nine and testify the vast growing Muslim population are the Mosque of Binat Bibi, the Mosque and Gateway at Naswallah Gulli as well as the old forts in the central jail compound, now destroyed. Mirza Nathan, the author of Baharistan-i-Ghaibi refers to the two old forts which were built by Beg Murad Khan on the eastern and western side of the Dhulai Khal or canal long before Islam Khan made Dhaka the capital of Mughal Bengal.

so sad!