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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Postal Museum was inaugurated in 1985 but it was not so popular because it only opens on the weekdays during office hours previously.It is located in the second Floor of the General Post Office (G. P. O.) in Gulistan. Now it is open five days a week (Sunday - Thursday) from 9 AM to 5 PM.
No Tickets or Fee is needed to get entrance.There are two galleries, one is reserved for stamps only. This is a
Key Point Installations of Bangladesh so
photography is prohibited inside the museum.
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National Museum of Science & Technology (NMST) is an Attached Department of the Ministry of Science and Information & communication, the Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. It was formed under an executive order of the then Pakistan Government on April 26, 1965. This museum is functioning as an unitary body.
The museum has several galleries like: Physical science gallery, Fun science gallery, Biological science gallery, Technological gallery, IT gallery and so on. Except those, there are a science park, a sky observatory, a science library and so on. The museum arranges different types of educational programme like : Popular science lecture, Scientific film show, Children science festival and so on. The museum also arranges National Science and Information & Communication Technology each year both district level national on behalf of the respective ministry. The museum also helps the young scientists in developing their works.
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Currency Museum is located at Mirpur beside Bangladesh Bank Training Academy. This project is taken regarding the enlargement of the currency museum into money museum. The country’s eminent artists, architects and historians have worked together for the museum along with the central bank to make it launch.
Museum authority has collected local and foreign coins and banknotes in different ways to enrich this museum. The museum has now thousands of coins and notes from the Pala, Sena, Gupta, Sultani, Mughal and British periods. About 2500 coins and notes found in Wari-Bateshwar of Narsingdi will be reserved in this Museum. Bangladesh Numismatic Collectors’ Society handed over 100 coins of different eras to the Currency Museum of Bangladesh Bank.
The historically significant deposited coins included 48 of the Alauddin Hossain Shah era, 29 of Nasiruddin Nusrat Shah, four of Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, five of Sikandar Shah, three of Giasuddin Azam Shah, three of Rukunuddin Barbak Shah, two of Nasiruddin Mahmud, one of Mahmud Shah, one of Shahjahan, two of Badsha Alamgir , one of Islam Shah and one of the Shah Alam era.
A museum, first of its kind in Bangladesh, will help young people to know about the currency’s history and its evolution. Not only the history of Money, this museum will also help people to get acquainted with the lifestyle, education, culture and various aspects of archaeological evolution of human civilization through coins and currencies of different eras.
It showcases coins and banknotes, which are witnesses to history, to uphold the history and heritage before the present and future generations. Efforts are already on to collect old coins and install digital signage, touch screens, LCD monitors etc to equip the ‘Taka Museum’ into a modern, prosperous, state of the art, rich in information and technology-based museum.It has been established with modern technology to attract visitors.
The Governor, Expressed his appreciation in people of the society who are coming forward to enrich the collections of the Taka Museum of the bank, Dr Atiur Rahman said those institutions and individuals who would handover old coins as presents to the museum would be gladly accepted and the presenters would be properly recognized.
Background History: A currency museum was set up in the Bangladesh Bank in 2009, which was displaying currencies of almost all countries of the world. Initiatives had been taken to expand this museum to open the 'Taka Jadhughar’. At the end, the central bank's existing currency museum is being restructured as the 'Taka Jadughar'. The restructuring of the 'Taka Jadhughar' took place on the premises of Bangladesh Bank Training Institute at Mirpur. Along with this, the central bank is collecting obsolete coins and banknotes to exhibit in the gallery.
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On 21st February, a rally of students were coming towards Dhaka Medical College during the Language Movement in 1952. The police shoot towards the rally and instantly some of the protesters of the first line were killed immediately. One of them was Shahid Abul Barkat (1927-1952). Few days after, the Central Shaheed Minar was built in here and from 2000, UNESCO declared 21 February as the Mother Language Day.
Previous History: In 1947, Pakistan got independence from India. There was two parts of Pakistan- the east and the west. Eastern Pakistan was green by the bless of river God and populated with a lot of people and on the other hand, the western Pakistan was nothing but a desert, population was also low. Demographic, social and economical lifestyle of these two parts of land were completely different, language was different too. But the capital was established in the west and the rulers ruled the entire country living in the west. From 1947, Urdu was the only state language of Pakistan whereas the students of Dhaka university always wanted to make Bengali as a secondary language. Finally in 1952, after some students were killed in the language movement, the government decided to make Bengali as a second language. Later, the eastern part of Pakistan became an independent country by the liberation war in 1971 named Bangladesh.
Early Life of Abul Barkat: Abul Barkat was a student who came to Dhaka for his higher studies. He was born at Murshidabad, West Bengal (now India). He stayed at his maternal uncle's home during his stay in Dhaka. He was a student of Masters level while he is being killed by the police open fire on 21 February, 1952 (aged 24).
The Abul Barkat Memorial Museum: Abul barkat was died in Dhaka Medical College hospital on 21st February after 8:30 PM. Many people were killed on that day. It is strongly believed that, more than 90% of the dead bodies were hidden by the government which did not receive any ritual and never found. Abul Barkats body might be one of them but fortunately his body was found and identified and buried in the Azimpur Graveyard, Dhaka according to proper procedures of Muslim believe. Many stories have written about the killings of 21 February in the Bengali Literature.
The Memorial Complex is actually a library, a seminar hall and a gallery of photographs of the language movement. It was built and inaugurated in 2012 in the Palashi, Dhaka University area by the funding of the government. It is actually a language martyr museum not only just for Abul Barkat. It is just named after Abul Barkat. The Museum is open 6 days a week from 10 AM to 4 PM, except Fridays and national holidays (only 21 February & 16 December is an exception). No ticket or entry fee is needed to enter into the two storied memorial complex. From December to March, the institute arranges special video programs for the young students to let them aware of the language movement and the liberation war.
The Language martyr Abul Barkat was honored with the "Ekushee Padak" (the highest non military achievement in Bangladesh) by the Governmnet of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh in 2000. His grave is situated in Azimpur Graveyard in Dhaka.
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