Ahsan manzil
Are looking for places to visit in bangladesh?
Then you are in right place to know about a oldest history of Ahsan manzil in Bangladesh.Ahsan manzil is one of the oldest museum in Bangladesh.It has long history about Nawab and King of mughal era.You can visit there and enjoy your day with peach.so here some history sbout ahsan manzil and some picture. :)
History
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| Ahsan manzil |
In Mughal era, there was a
garden house of Sheikh Enayet Ullah, the landlord of Jamalpur Porgona
(district), in this place. Sheikh Enayet Ullah was a very charming person. He
acquired a very big area in Kumartuli and included it in his garden house. Here
he built a beautiful palace and named it "Rongmohol" (Rangmahal). He
used to enjoy here keeping beautiful girls collected from the country and
abroad, dressing them with gorgeous dresses and expensive ornaments. There is a
saying that, the foujdar of Dhaka (representative of mughal emperor) in that
time was attracted to one of the beauty ful girls among them. He invited Sheikh
Enayet Ullah in a party one night and killed him in a conspiracy when he was
returning home. That girl also committed suicide in anger and sorrow. There was
a grave of Sheikh Enayet Ullah in the north-east corner of the palace yard
which was ruined in the beginning of the 20th century.
Probably
in the period of Nawab Alibardi Khan around 1740 century, Sheikh Moti Ullah,
the son of Sheikh Enayet Ullah, sold the property to the French traders. There
was a French trading house beside this property. The trading house became
wealthier after purchasing this property. In that time, French traders could do
business here without paying any taxes by a decree from the emperor Aurangzeb.
In that time, the French became very wealthy by doing business here in
competition with the English and other European companies. They made a big
palace and dug a pond for sweet water in the newly purchased property. The pond
still exists in the compound of Ahsan Manzil which was called "Les
Jalla" in that time. In the English-French war, French got defeated and
all their properties were captured by the English. On 22 June 1757, the French
left the trading house with a fleet of 35 boats from the river station of
Buriganga in front of Kumartuli.
In 1785, the
French transferred the property to a French tradesman named Mr. Champigni, and
retaken it at 1801. According to Paris agreement of 1814, the French claimed
all their left properties at Dhaka, and in 1827 the property was again returned
to the French. For the increasing power of the English, the French was forced
to leave subcontinent. They decided to sell all their properties in Dhaka. So
in 1830, the trading house of Kumartuli was purchased by the established
landlord of Dhaka Khwaja Alimullah.
After
some renovation work, the trading house became the residence of Khwaja
Alimullah. In his time, a stable and a family mosque was added in the compound.
After his death, his son Khwaja Abdul Gani made a great flourish to the
property, and named it "Ahsan Manjil" on his son Ahsan Ullah. In the
east side of the old building, he made a new building with a different design,
and also done great renovation work to the old building. Since then, the old
building was called "Ondor Mohol" and the new building was called
"Rong mohol".
In
the evening of 7 April 1888, a devastating tornado hit Dhaka city causing great
damage. Ahsan Manjil was severely damaged and abandoned. An English engineer
from Kolkata arrived here to examine the palace. He gave opinion that except
for the "Rangmahal", all the other parts of the palace would have to
be reconstructed. So Khwaja Abdul Gani and his son Ahsanullah turned their full
attention to rebuild the palace. Both of the buildings were reconstructed
during that time with a new design and supervised by the local engineer Gobinda
Chandra Roy.
The
old French building was reconstructed to a two storied building keeping similarity
to the Rangmahal. A gangway was made with wood connecting the first floors of
the two buildings. The most beautiful thing made in this time was the dome,
which made the palace so beautiful.
After
the death of Khwaja Ahsanullah in 1901, the glory of Ahsan Manjil was ended.
His successors couldn’t continue the glory because of the internal family
quarrel. They rented different parts of the palace to tenants, who actually
made it a slum. In 1952, govt. acquired the property and left in supervision of
the Dhaka Nawab court. In 1985, Dhaka National Museum acquired the property and
made it a museum following a massive restoration programme which utilised
historic photographs of the property.
Thanks for visit us.
credit: interent.
sourse: internet and book.
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