Brief
Ahsan Manzil (আহসান মঞ্জিল, Ahsan Monjil) was the official residential and seat of the Dhaka Nawab Family. This magnificent building is situated at Kumartoli along the banks of the Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The construction of this palace was started in 1859 and completed in 1872. It was constructed in the Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture. It has been designated as a national museum.
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 Kumortuli (Kumartuli) and included it in his garden house. Here he built a beautiful palace and named it “Rongmohol”. He used to enjoy here keeping beautiful girls collecting 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 beautiful 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 20th century.
Around 1740 century, in the period of Nawab Alibardi Khan, 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 Awrangajeb.
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 Manjil 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. In the 22nd June of 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 left 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 as “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 the “Rangmahal”, all other parts of the palace have to reconstruct. So Khwaja Abdul Gani and his son Ahsanullah turned their full attention to rebuild the palace. Both of the building was 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 floor of two building. 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.
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[name] => Bagerhat Museum
[post_id] => 18666
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/bagerhat-museum/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/P_20150907_161017_1_p.jpg
[post_content] =>
In 2001, after receiving a fund from the UNESCO, a museum has built by the government at Bagerhat in the UNESCO world heritage site "Shat Gombuj Mosque" complex. It is now being used as a learning center to let people aware about the ancient city named Khalifatabad established by Khan Jahan Ali which is known as Bagerhat today.
It is a one storied building. It has two large galleries to display antiques. Antiques found in Bagerhat are categorized into two parts. One of them are the earthen materials and another is wooden and slate (rock/stone). There is a photo gallery too to display the rare photos of artifacts and ruined architectural structures.
The building is built later but the designers made it with a beauty of ancient structure visibly similar with the mosque because of the dome so that the museum does not look odd in the complex. During the summer time, it is opened from 9 am to 6 pm for the visitors. The entry fee for the complex is 20 taka for Bangladeshi citizens and it is also the ticket of the museum, there is no separate ticket is needed.
The latest collection of this museum is the skin of the alligator (named Kalapahar) of Khan Jahan Ali. After its death, the skin is preserved and being displayed at the museum.
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[name] => {:en}House of Poet Jasim Uddin{:}{:bn}কবি জসীমউদ্দিনের বাড়ী{:}
[post_id] => 5865
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/house-of-poet-jasim-uddin/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/House_of_Poet_Jasimuddin-Pervez21181-300x225.jpg
[post_content] => {:en}
Jasim Uddin is the famous poet from Bangladesh, especially for his dedication to write poems about the folklore culture. He is the only poet from the country whose poems depicts the beauty of the villages and people of villages. The house of our beloved poet is situated by the river "Kumar". The river itself is an enchanting for its beauty and environment. Inside the house premise, you'll find the grave of the poet (actually a family grave for poet's family).
To enter inside the house premise, you'll require 5 taka per person. Inside the premise, you can see some used objects of the poet, for example camera, plates, bed, chair, some photos etc. You'll find lots of quotes from the poet (some from speech, some from poem, and some from story). You'll love to read those from there. Especially the ones those were at your text book during your childhood education.
At the outside of the house premise, it’s a nice picnic spot. Lots of visitors used to come to this place to pass the afternoon. The river, and the field beside the river is lovely for enjoying the beauty of the sunset. The large field beside the river is now a playing ground for the local people. They used to pass their afternoon using playing football or other local plays there. It’s also a lovely scene where kids are playing. For visitors, there are benches to sit, under sheds.
During the 1st January to 18th January, there used to be a Mela (Fair) at this ground by the name of the Poet. But the Mela unofficially used to extend for another 2 days. So the total duration is 20 days.
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আমাদের লোকসংস্কৃতির উপর কবিতা রচনার জন্য কবি জসীমউদ্দিন খ্যাতি অর্জন করেন। বাংলাদেশে তিনিই একমাত্র কবি যার কবিতায় এদেশের গ্রামের সৌন্দর্য এবং গ্রামের মানুষের জীবনযাত্রা নিখুতভাবে উঠে এসেছে।
আমাদের সকলের প্রিয় এই কবির বাসভবন কুমার নদীর তীরে অবস্থিত। চমৎকার সৌন্দর্য এবং তার চারপাশের মনোরম পরিবেশের কারনে এই নদীটির আলাদা খ্যাতি আছে। বাসার অভ্যন্তরে পারিবারিক কবরস্থানে কবির কবর রয়েছে। কবি জসীমউদ্দিনের বাসায় ঢুকতে আপনাকে পাঁচ টাকা প্রবেশমূল্য দিতে হবে। এখানে আপনি কবির ব্যবহার করা বিভিন্ন জিনিসপত্র দেখতে পাবেন যেমনঃ ক্যামেরা, প্লেট, চেয়ার, খাট, কিছু ছবি ইত্যাদি।
এছাড়া এখানে বিভিন্ন ভাষণ, কবিতা এবং গল্প থেকে কবির নিজস্ব উক্তি দেখতে পাবেন। এসব উক্তির কিছু কিছু আমরা আমাদের পাঠ্য পুস্তকে পড়ে এসেছি তাই এসব পড়ে আপনি আপনার ছেলেবেলায় হারিয়ে যাবেন। কবির বাসার বাইরে একটি চমৎকার পিকনিক স্পট রয়েছে যেখানে বিকালবেলা মানুষজনের সমাগম ঘটে। এখানকার নদী এবং ধানক্ষেত ঘেরা পরিবেশে সূর্যাস্তের অপরূপ দৃশ্য উপভোগ করতে পারবেন।
এখানে নদীর পাশেই অবস্থিত বিশাল মাঠটিতে স্থানীয়রা খেলাধুলা করে থাকে। ছোট বাচ্চাদের ছোটাছুটি দেখে হয়তো আপনি শৈশবে হারিয়ে যাবেন। দর্শনার্থীদের বসার জন্য মাঠের পাশে পৃথক শেডের ব্যবস্থা রয়েছে। প্রতিবছর জানুয়ারি মাসের ১ তারিখ থেকে ১৮ তারিখ এই মাঠে কবির নামে একটি মেলার আয়োজন করা হয়ে থাকে। তবে স্থানীয়দের অনুরোধে মেলার মেয়াদ দুইদিন বৃদ্ধি করা হয়ে থাকে।
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[name] => Mir Mosharrof Hossain Memorial Museum
[post_id] => 22069
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/mir-mosharrof-hossain-memorial-museum/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/P_20151017_143917_1_p-300x169.jpg
[post_content] => Mir Mosharraf Hossain (মীর মশাররফ হোসেন) was a famous Bengali language novelist, playwright and essayist in 19th century. He is popular among the people for his famous novel Bishad Sindhu (বিষাদ সিন্ধু). It is a novel based on the tragic death of the grandchildren of Holy Prophet Mohammad. The incidents behind "Ashura" is being well written in here. He is considered as the first novelist to emerge from the Muslim society of Bengal. He was born and brought up at Lahinipara in Kushtia District.
Though he was born in the village of Lahinipara (লাহিনিপাড়া) in Kumarkhali (কুমারখালী), Kushtia in 1847, but after that he spent most of his life in
Padamdi in Baliakandi Upazila under Rajbari District. He was born in a Muslim aristocrat family.
The original house at Kumarkhali being demolished almost 130 years ago. In the year 2008, government established an auditorium in that place along with a primary school.
That place is used as a museum too, which is named as Mir Mosharrof Hossain Memorial Museum. Inside the Museum, visitors may not discover a significant number of collections. But, a few collections will make the visitor remember the lifestyle of this great novelist. There are only some agricultural tools, chairs, glasses and some armors used by Mir Mosharraf Hossain is being displayed for the visitors. There are some rare and historical photographs too.
Mir Mosharraf Hossain died in 1912 in
Padamdi. In 1999, Government of People's Republic of Bangladesh decided to build a memorial complex in his family graveyard in Padamdi, Rajbari. Which make the traveler confused as two of these structures are almost in similar pattern concentrating on the memories. But a traveler has to keep in mind that one is in Kushtia and another one is in Rajbari.
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[name] => Gandhi Ashram Trust
[post_id] => 10840
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/gandhi-ashrom-trust/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/124-300x225.jpg
[post_content] =>
Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi, the father of India, was the pioneer of the liberation movement of India from the British Empire. He visited Noakhali in 1946 and the place he lived is now turned into a memorial complex situated 25 kilometers away from the Noakhali District.
The very brief history of India: In 1946, just before the liberation of Pakistan from India, there were some social anarchy began in the undivided India. At that time, he decided to visit different places where the massacre started. According to his plan, he visited Noakhali and gave a peace speech. Gandhi was interested to set up a technical training institute at "Joyag" area for the rural uneducated people because he believed that only education can change the mind of a man and keep themselves away from being involved in crimes like killing/looting etc. At that time, a local lawyer, named Hemanta Kumar invited him to stay at his home. Hemanta was believed as the first barrister in this region on that time. He donated his land and building to Gandhiji and Gandhiji was pleased to him too. Gandhi used to drink only goat milk and he always carried a goat with his team. One night, the goat of Gandhi was stolen from the complex. After that he returned to Bihar (India) but willing to come again to continue the activities of the vocational training center. After that, Pakistan got independence from India. In 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by fire and never managed to came back to Noakhali before his death. That was his only visit. In 1971, the east part of Pakistan declared themselves independent and named Bangladesh. Noakhali belongs to Bangladesh now. The Institute is now running autonomously in collaboration with the Bangladesh government.
Current Condition of Gandhi Ashram Trust: After his death, the Pakistani government tried to destroy his memories and work. The Pakistanis always hated Gandhi and all the Hindu people. During the period of 1947-1971, Pakistani people and their supporters forced Hindus to settle in India and destroyed their properties. After 1971, the Independent country Bangladesh began to preserve his history. The Vocational instituted was then named "Gandhi Ashram Trust" and started to serve local rural people. But now after 2000, the training activities started to decline. People are much more interested to move towards to a city now. Now the building is converted into a museum where lots of photos of Gandhi's earlier life is found.
The Ashram Trust is located in Joyag, Sonaimuri, Noakhali district. It is actually situated at Noakhali - Ramganj (Laksmipur) highway. There are some other branches of Gandhi Ashram are established to achieve the mission of Mahatma Gandhi in many different districts of Bangladesh. But actually the historical place where Gandhi resided in Bangladesh is in Noakhali.
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