Dhaka - Historic Pictures and Photos, with Notes on Architectural Conservation

[tanzirian]

I have been posting some old photos and notes about historic structures of Dhaka in the Dhaka Landmarks thread, but I thought they would be better served in their own thread. To begin with, I will repost some pictures from the Landmarks thread but with some supplementary material.

Dhaka was founded as the Mughal provincial capital in 1608 or 1610 and remained the capital for most of the 17th century, and was known initially as Jahangir Nagar after the emperor. During the Mughal period Dhaka prospered as the centre of Bengal’s lucrative textiles industry. The importance of Dhaka declined somewhat after the shift of power to Murshidabad in 1717, but it remained prosperous until the destruction of the textiles industry after the onset of British rule in 1757. Thereafter it declined rapidly, until the jute boom in the latter half of the 19th century restored some measure of economic growth.

The first pictures of Dhaka which we have, are a series of sketches by Charles D’Oyly, who was "collector" of Dhaka between 1808 and 1811. They were published in four volumes between 1814 and 1827, "The Antiquities of Dacca". By this time Dhaka was largely a collection of Mughal period ruins. Another important series of pictures was by Fritz Kapp in 1904, a photographer for Viceroy Curzon on his trip to Dhaka that year. At this time, Dhaka was just starting to awake from its long slumber, a quiet but elegant colonial period town.

Lalbagh Fort

The most important Mughal relic is the Lalbagh Fort. This was perhaps not so much a military fort as a secure garden complex where the Mughal governor, or nawab, could attend to business or leisure. Bengal was the wealthiest province of the Mughal Empire, and its governor was usually someone important. Construction was begun in 1678 by Prince Mohammed Azam, son of Emperor Alamgir (aka Aurangzeb), who was Nawab at the time, then continued by his successor Shaista Khan, Alamgir’s highest ranking nobleman. According to popular legend, when Khan’s daughter, Iran-Dukht, suddenly died in 1684, he suspended work on the Fort, and built her tomb within its walls. Iran-Dukht, who had been betrothed to Prince Azam, was also known as Pari Bibi ("Fairy Lady"), and her tomb bears this name today. When D’Oyly sketched the ruins of the fort around 1814, the Buriganga River still flew past its southern ramparts. What you see here is the southwest corner of the fort. I am not sure what these massive pillars supported:


Here is a view of the south face (river front) of the main gate in the 1870s. This gate is located in the southeast corner of the fort. Today we normally only see the rear of the main gate, as the area outside the fort is filled with buildings, such as the area from which this photo is taken. Note the chhattris and guldastas on the south face, which do not survive today:


This last pic (I believe) is one of the Fritz Kapp series from 1904. Note that the chhattris and guldastas no longer exist. This may simply reflect the passage of time, but Dhaka was also badly damaged by a tornado in 1888, so that may have been the cause of the damage.


Today Lalbagh Fort is one of the rare stories of successful conservation in Old Dhaka. The surviving structures within the fort include an audience hall / hammam (bathhouse) complex, the tomb of Pari Bibi, and a mosque. The mosque actually predates the fort itself, being built during the reign of Shah Jehan, but the original domes were damaged and were replaced by the fluted variety more popular under Alamgir. Since there are many beautiful exterior shots in the Dhaka Landmarks thread, I will only repost a few here (from Tmac's postings) for reference. Clockwise from top left - interior of the main gate; Pari Bibi's tomb with the domes of the mosque peeking out from behind it; rear view of the audience hall / hammam; and a section of the battlements:



However, I have not seen pics of the interiors of these buildings posted elsewhere in Skyscrapercity, so I will post some here. The audience hall / hammam is a two storied structure with the hall on the upper floor and the hammam (bathhouse) on the lower floor. In Mughal times, hammams were not only for bathing but were also a place where meetings could be held in a climate controlled environment (hot water would provide warmth in winter, and vice versa). A couple of pictures of the interior of the hammam:


Below left, pic of the roof of the upper storey audience hall. This is a chau-chala style roof (modeled after the roofs of village huts in Bengal), a homegrown archtiectural motif later adopted and used extensively by the Mughals. Below right, a pic from early in Alamgir's reign showing Muhammad Azam as a child, at the foot of the throne on which his father is sitting. Standing behind him (purple tunic) is Shaista Khan.


Finally, here are some pictures of the interior of Pari Bibi’s tomb. The first picture is of the cenotaph and the last is of the interior of the dome. Note the use of marble and stone, rare in Bengal as neither are available locally:


More to come later!

[Tmac]

this should be a fine thread. Looking forward to seeing and learning more.

[mirzazeehan]

Great pics and notes Tanzirian.

[Dhakaiya]

Good idea of opening this thread Tanzirian. Keep 'em coming!

[Zaki]

Hey tanzirian thanks for what your doing and excellent work. Its really great to learn about the history of Dhaka and actually see some pictures of historic dhaka (which btw i have no clue how you found, great work). My families been living in or had significant connections to Dhaka for as many generations as i can trace back so its especially amazing for me to see these pics.

[tanzirian]

Thank you for the comments. Zaki, for now all the photos that I will be posting were dug up on the internet. Later, after I purchase a scanner (maybe a few weeks later), I will post some other pics I have from my own photos and from books. Nowadays, with my work, and also some exams in the near future, I just don't have the time, but years ago when I did, I would spend time at the university library looking up books about India published during the Raj, magazines from the Pakistan period, etc - once in a while you will find a good or unique photo (even here in a small corner of USA). Of course, if I had Tmac's army of private photographers at my beck and call, I would send them out en masse and have a bunch of new photos to go with the old ones ( ), but these ones will have to do for now...Next post in a day or so, bye for now.

[Dhakaiya]

A 1924 map of Dhaka or Dacca as it is labelled. Funny how areas like Dhanmondi are deserted!

[ragibhasan]

Hi Everyone,
This is Ragib Hasan from Bangla Wikipedia. In both Bangla and English Wikipedia, we are working on a lot of articles on Bangladesh.

The problem we face now is of the lack of photos. Wikipedia can only use freely licensed photos. So, only user contributed photos, old copyright expired photos (taken before 1947), and those whose photographer gave permission - can be uploaded.

Last month, I took a lot of photos of old Dhaka. I think Tmac has posted a lot of them here ... the one from Hoseni Dalan, Lalbagh Kella, Dhakeshwari Temple, Khan Mohammad Mirdha's mosque etc.

I've uploaded a lot of them at Wikipedia's free-licensed image repository at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dhaka and http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bangladesh

But we need more photos. I found a lot of photos in this forum, many posted by the persons who took them. The Wikipedia projects on Dhaka and Bangladesh will greatly be benefited if we could use those photos. You can contribute a photo under GNU Free Documentation License, or Creative Commons Attribution license. In both cases, you can mandate that you must be given attribution as the photographer, so your copyright is preserved.

We need to preserve the cultural heritage of Dhaka ... a city of monuments that are gradually being engulfed by the urban sprawl.

Feel free to contact me at ragibhasan AT gmail DOT com

[PS: Dhakaiya bhai here also worked in the Wikipedia project ... he can add more info]

[Dhakaiya]

Welcome Ragib!! Yes, you are definitely right, wikipedia as the largest encyclopedia in the world needs more Bangladesh pictures. For pictures you can contact Tmac and Mirza, they've a lot of them. For information you can contact any of us. Wikipedia and skyscrapercity can mutually benefit each other if we interchange photos between us. Thanks!

[ragibhasan]

Thanks, Dhakaiya.

Note that, under Bangladesh Copyright Act of 2001, and also under Indian copyright act, any photo older than 60 years is in the public domain. So, if you find a photo older than 1947, please upload it to wikimedia commons at http://commons.wikimedia.org (under [[Category:Dhaka]]) (or you can just point me to the link of the photo, I can do the rest).

[tanzirian]

Welcome to the forum, Ragib. For now, the pictures I am posting are from internet sources and most probably are copyrighted. I am posting them without permission but since this a noncommercial, educational, and temporary posting, I am hoping that it won't bother anyone. If you want to get the copyright information for any of the photographs I post, just send me a private message. Since you are in Bangladesh, I recommend getting in touch with the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. They are important proponents of architectural conservation in our country and probably have a large cache of images somewhere. The National Museum may also be helpful. And, if you look in dusty corners of libraries, you might find something nice for yourself. In a few weeks, I will be posting some pics I took myself in 2000 - if you want to use those, you are welcome to.

Dhakaiya, not surprising that you can't find Dhanmondi on that map. Until 1905, Dhaka consisted of what we now know as "Old Dhaka." Ramna was added after 1905. Dhanmondi was added during the East Pakistan period as Dhaka's first (and still best) planned suburb. Motijheel was also added during this period as our downtown. In the upper right hand corner of the map, can you see the large Moti Jheel (lake) itself? This has now been completely drained.

Bara Katra

On with the thread...Next to Lalbagh Fort, the most important Mughal monument in the city is the Bara Katra or Large Caravanserai. This was built in 1644 by one Mir Abdul Qasem and in its day was one of the grandest of Mughal caravenserais. A caravanserai is a structure found in most important Islamic cities and were the precursors of modern hotels. They provided visiting merchants with lodging and a place to store their goods and animals. Unfortunately, the Bara Katra has not benefited from the same conservation efforts as has the Lalbagh Fort, and exists today in a delapidated condition. The Katra is illegally occupied by, and the surrounding land controlled by, a large madrassah which has resisted all efforts to try and save this building. The government has made no effort to do so, either.

The building was originally a quadrangular structure with an inner courtyard. Only the south wall of the building survives today. In Mughal times, the Buringanga used to flow past the south side of the katra. Even looking at a picture from an article from National Geographic magazine in the 1950s, there was still an unobstructed view of the building from the river. No longer the case - the katra is heavily encroached by surrounding structures, so an unobstructed view is impossible, and the river flows much further south.

Here is a picture of the outer aspect of the south (river front) from Charles D'Oyly's sketches (circa 1814; see the elephant for idea of size):


Another D'Oyly sketch which shows a portion of the northern side of the complex, which no longer survives. Note the mosque, which does not survive either.


Here is another view showing the inner aspect of the south front. This photo is from the 1870s and is taken from where the courtyard would have been. This is essentially the same part of the building which survives today, albeit in far worse condition.


Essentially the same view as the last one, but from 1982:


The following pictures are all from 1982. Just add 25 years of decay, and you get the katra as it looks like today. On the left, the outer aspect of the south gate. On the right, the inner aspect of the same:


At each end of the southern front, are octagonal towers. Two views:


Ruins of barrell vaulted chambers that ran along the sides of the katra:




I visited the katra in 2000. If you are looking for a pretty place to go to, then this is not one I would recommend. If you are interested in Dhaka history, go now, because it is quite possible this building will not survive very long. In the absence of conservation, this, like many other buildings in Old Dhaka, will either collapse on its own, or be replaced by the occupants with a new structure.

[tanzirian]

Chhotta Katra

The Chhotta Katra or Small Caravanserai was built in 1663 and located just east of the Bara Katra. Until this century the Buriganga flowed past its south side. Although smaller than the Bara Katra, this was still an impressive edifice with a grand river front. Like the Bara Katra, this was a quadrangular structure. Although just as delapidated today, encroached and occupied by slums and shops, both the south and north gateways survive intact. In Mughal times there was a mosque within the compound, which impressed Charles D'Oyly, who has described it in his notes. Like some other buildings including Husaini Dalan, this structure was modified in colonial times - in this case with the addition of classical columns to the wings.

First pic below shows the outer aspect (river front) of the south gate (partially obscured by the building on the left); second pic below shows the outer aspect of the north gate:


First pic below shows the inner aspect of the south gate; second pic below shows the inner aspect of the north gate:




Both Bara Katra and Chhota Katra, if restored, would greatly enchance Dhaka's dignity as historic city. Yet it seems today, this realistic proposal is just as unlikely to happen as any fantasy.

Addendum - in post 54 of this thread, I have posted a photo of the Chhotta Katra viewed from the Buriganga River, taken around 1880, before all the surrounding buildings were built. This gives a much better idea of the overall structure. Check it out if you are interested.

[Tmac]

who occupies these buildings Tanzirian? Do people live in them?

[ragibhasan]

Originally Posted by Tmac

who occupies these buildings Tanzirian? Do people live in them?

Sadly, the Bara Katra is being occupied by a Madrassah now!!!

[Tmac]

Originally Posted by ragibhasan

Sadly, the Bara Katra is being occupied by a Madrassah now!!!

legally or illegally??

[tanzirian]

Illegally, to the best of my knowledge. But they are large and well-connected, but even if they were not, evicting religeous hardliners would not be an easy task, if you can imagine. Here is a newspaper article pulished January 17th:

Bara Katra, Chhota Katra lie
derelict for decades
Parvin Khaleda


Bara Katra and Chhota Katra, two 16th-century relics and also attractive archaeological sites in Dhaka, stand derelict for decades.
The present state of the monuments is so pitiable that it is really hard to identify their previous splendour. Archaeologists fear the historic structures might collapse anytime, if proper steps are not taken immediately.
‘Not only the Bara Katra and Chhota Katra, but many other historic monuments, including Panam Nagar at Sonargaon, are also now in possession of influential quarters and lie derelict, sources in the archaeological department said. It is not possible to free the ancient sites from the grips of grabbers without direct help of law enforcers, they added.
The department, however, tried to survey the two katras several times, but failed due to obstruction from the people, living and operating their businesses around the ancient monument. Even no government has made an effective attempt to maintain the monument in its deserved state, the sources said.
Bara Katra, one of the most important relics of the Mughal period, is situated on the bank of the River Buriganga at Chawkbazar. It was built in 1644 by Diwan Mir Abul Qasem during the reign of Shah Shuja.
According to historical evidence, the monuments enclosed a central courtyard which has four wings with 22 rooms.
The building was planned following the traditional patterns of the caravansaries of central Asia and it was embellished with all the features of the imperial Mughal architectural grandeur.
At present, only the gateways of Bara Katra could be seen from the crowded alley of Chawkbazar. Both sides of the alley of Bara Katra Road are congested by different kinds of wholesale and retail shops, selling food grains, glass and plastic wares.
A madrassah named ‘Hossinia Ashraful Ulum Bara Katra Madrasha’ was housed in the main building of the monument in 1931. Around 500 students and teachers are using the building as their classroom and living place.
Md Abu Sayed, a teacher of the madrassah, said the madrassah authorities had extended to two other buildings linked with the main building of the monument of Bara Katra.
Presently, the madrassah committee is in charge of the total area of Bara Katra. Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini, chairman of Islami Oikya Jote, is the principal of the institute.
Nesar Ahmed, a student of the madrassah who has been studying in the institute for last five years, said many visitors, including foreigners, visited the place. They had no other option, but to take snaps of the derelict exterior walls.
The life of the students, living in the dilapidated rooms of the ancient building, is unsafe as no large-scale renovation was ever done since the construction of the building several hundred years back.
The Chhota Katra is in a state of more dilapidation compared to that of the Bara Katra.
Chhota Katra, situated about 200 yards east of Bara Katra at Chawkbazar, was built by Nawab Shayesta Khan in 1664 in line with the design of Bara Katra, but smaller in size.
The building of Chhota Katra and its land are now in possession of personal ownership, and partially damaged buildings are being used by small factories and storehouses, said a local resident.
Such kinds of structures as caravansaries are also seen in Maldah and Murshidabad in India, but few of them can be recognised now. All the caravansaries were built on the riversides which indicated that trade on river routes was flourishing in the Mughal period.

[Zaki]

Seeing the conditions of all these buildings just makes me sad. Dhaka should be protecting its historic sites not destroying them. Hopefully the new government when we have one will attempt to deal with this issue.

[tanzirian]

Mughal Bridges

The Mughals built bridges in and around Dhaka, as elsewhere. There was a wooden bridge across the Buriganga that connected the palace at Jinjira to the city. The most famous bridge was the Pagla Pul across the Qadamtali rivulet, about halfway between Dhaka and Narayanganj.

D'Oyly sketched it in ruinous condition in the early 1800s (in the first picture - look in the distance. You can see the Dhaka riverfront ):



This is a photo of the ruins from the 1870s:


This photo, from the 1880s, was labeled as an unknown bridge, but I think that it is also of Pagla Pul:


And a few other bridges. Bridge at Tantee Bazar, sketched by D'Oyly:


Bridge at Tongi. The first pic is a sketch by D'Oyly, the next two photos are from the 1880s.




A number of bridges, including the Tongi bridge, survived in a ruinous condition until a few decades ago, when they were demolished to make way for newer infrastructure. Although there are no longer any Mughal period bridges in Dhaka, there are two nearby in Sonargaon and Rampal. The small bridge in Painam (Sonargaon) has been restored and is in good condition. I have never seen a picture of the bridge at Rampal.

Addendum - I have added some contemporary photos of the Pagla Pul ruins in post 32 of this thread.

[tanzirian]

Lost Mughal Palace

Take a look at this magazine illustration from 1874. The second picture is of Bara Katra, the third picture is of Shat Gombuj Masjid, and the fourth picture is of Lalbagh Fort. For me, however, the most interesting drawing is the first one, entitled "Ruins of the Nawab Baree." I am not certain, but I believe that this could be a picture of part of the palace of the Nawabs at Jinjiira, on the bank of the Buriganga opposite Dhaka. If so, this is the only picture of that complex I have ever seen, although D'Oyly is also supposed to sketched a picture of it (there is probably nothing left of it now; when my sources were written in the 1980s, there were just a few ruins amidst the slums). This palace was built by Nawab Ibrahim Khan II, who governed from 1689 to 1697. The palace was a grand complex surrounded by a moat and connected to Dhaka proper by a wooden bridge. In the 1980s, the remains of seven apartments with chau-chala roofs and a large hammam could still be made out. According to tradition, the wife and mother of the last independent Nawab of Bengal, Shiraj Ud Daulah, were imprisoned in this palace after he was toppled by his trecherous general, Mir Jafar, who effectively handed power over to the British in 1757. The two women were murdered by being drowned in the river.


Addendum - On reflection, this drawing might also be a depiction of a part of Nimtali Palace. If you are interested, see post 42 of this thread

[Dhakaiya]

Tanzirian, could you tell me something about the difference between Dhaka of the 17th century and the Dhaka of the pre-1946 period?