Ahsan
Manzil (Bengali:
আহসান মঞ্জিল) was the official
residential palace and seat of the Dhaka Nawab Family. This magnificent building is
situated at Kumartoli along the banks of the Buriganga
River in Bangladesh. The construction of this palace was started in
the year 1859 and was completed in 1869. It is constructed in the Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture.
To preserve the cultural and history of the area, the palace became the Bangladesh National Museum
on 20 September 1992.
History: In mughal period, 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 in his garden house. Here he built a beautiful palace and named it “Rangmahal”. 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
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 Awrangajeb.
In
that time, the French became very wealthy 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 was 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 prosper 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 than, the old building
was called “Ondor Mohol” and the new building was called “Rong mohol”.
In the
evening of 7th April, 1888, a great tornado hit Dhaka
city causing great damage. Ahsan Manjil was greatly 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 reconstruct the palace. Both of the building was reconstructed
during that time with a new design made 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 doom,
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 for 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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