Old Prestigious Colleges

Dhaka College building, later State Bank building, near Bahadur Shah Park

Dhaka College: Started at the premises of an English Seminary school at Dhaka (Dhaka Collegiate School) in 1841 in its extended first floor. The Bishop of Calcutta laid the foundation stone in 1841 when the school was raised to the status of a college. A new building was completed in 1846. In 1842, there were 344 students - Muslims, Hindus, Armenians and Portuguese. In 1848 the number of students reduced to 289 of which 19 were Muslims.

In 1908, it was shifted to the newly built Curzon Hall leaving the old building to the Collegiate School, which later went to house the State Bank. On the establishment of Dhaka University, the college was shifted from Curzon Hall to the present High Court Building. During the Second World War, it was shifted to an old structure in Siddique Bazar.

At present, it has its own premises north of Dhaka New Market. This college is noted as the premier college of Dhaka, and can boast of having had many eminent educationists as its principals, amongst whom were Dr. T. Wise, W. Brennad, W. Booth, F. C. Turner, A. J. Archibald, and Dr. P. K. Roy. The college was affiliated to the University of Calcutta in 1858. Early graduates of Dhaka College included Bazlur Rahim (later Khan Bahadur), Abdul Aziz (Inspector of Schools, Chittagong Division), Zahedur Rahman Zahid (Judge of High Court and father of the late Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy), Anisuzzaman Khan (later Additional Chief Presidency Magistrate in Calcutta), Naziruddin Ahmed (later Deputy Magistrate and the first Registrar of Dhaka University) and many others eminent personalities.

Jagannath college, now University

Jagannath College: founded as Dhaka Brahma School in 1858 by Dinanath Sen, Prabhaticharan Roy, Anathbandhu Mallik and Brajasundar Kaitra. Kishorilal Chowdhury, the Zamindar of Baliadi, took over the school in 1872 and renamed it as Jagannath School after his father. In 1884, it was raised to a second grade college. Law was one of the first courses introduced in the college.

The college started with only 48 students and in five years, the roll raised to 396. In 1910, Jagannath College became known as the best-equipped private college in Dhaka. It goes to the credit of Jagannath College, along with Dhaka College, that the University of Dhaka started in 1921 mainly with students graduated from these two colleges.

Jagannath College opened Honours and Masters programmes in 1975. That year the government took over the college and upgraded it into a postgraduate college. It has about 35,000 students now, of whom about 17% were female. The number of teachers in the college was 350, of whom around 75% of the teachers were female.The college has been upgraded to full-fledged university from September 2005.

Notre Dame college, Motijheel

Notre Dame College: Established by the Holy Cross Fathers in 1949 at Lakshmibazar, Dhaka, as the first Catholic college and was named St Gregory College. It was shifted to a new location in 1950 and from there, to its present site at Motijheel in 1954, when it was renamed Notre Dame College. The institution, run by Roman Catholics, open to all students, demonstrated excellent results since the 1950s. The college began with classes in arts and commerce subjects. By 1955, it had Bachelor of Arts courses, and in 1960, it started bachelor of science courses.

It got affiliation with the University of Dhaka in 1955 and in 1959, was declared the best college in East Pakistan in recognition of the high percentage of successful candidates in various university examinations. Meanwhile, the college also earned reputation for its performance in sports and debates and publication of high quality textbooks by its teaching staff.

Old Dhaka scene

Dhaka's Old Mansions

Mill Barrack at Sutrapur, Dhaka:- The sugar mill built ran into financial loss and it was turm over to a flour mill owner. In 1857, the barrack of the mill was used by the British troops brought from Calcutta to quell the mutineers at Dhaka. Many of the mutineers- 'Sepoy Mutiny of 1857' (first freedom movement of the subcontinent) of Lalbagh Fort were detained here for trial. Between 1903 to 1912 a police training school sub-inspector cadets and constables was established. Now a fully developed training school for traffic police is running there (photo British Library: early 20th century).

Dhaka’s old Mansions:

In Dhaka, a thriving settlement had began before the Mughals made it the capital of Bengal. The French merchants came to Dhaka in the 1680s and settled in Tejgaon. They established Farashganj as a trading quarter to conduct business with permission from Naib Nazim Nawajesh Khan in 1740. Mr. Pogose, an Armenian businessman and philanthropist, took lease of the area from the English. The Hindu Zamindar mansions are dispersed on and around Tipu Sultan Road, Narinda, Farashganj and Sutrapur. The mile long Farashganj Road running East-West, starting from 'Sutrapur' up to the North Brook Hall (Lal Kuthi), once a treasure for traditional architecture, is now the centre of vegetable, spice, timber and cement wholesalers. It is full of derelict and abandoned palatial mansions of Hindu Zamindars, many of which are over 150 years old.

Ruplal house - late 19th cenury

late 19th century bldg

Ruplal House - now occupied by vendors and unauthorised squatters

Ruplal House: Early 19th century mansion, erected jointly by Ruplal and Ragunath - on the Buckland Bund in Farashganj that once presented as a grand river front. It’s two-story and divided into two unequal blocks. The building contains over fifty rooms of various sizes including a number of spacious halls. In 1888, when Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy of India visited Dhaka, a Ball was arranged in his honour in the Dance Hall of this mansion. At present, this massive old building is heavily encroached by spice and vegetable vendors and a colony of unauthorized squatters. This mansion vied with the majestic Ahsan Manzil in splendour.

Rose Garden

Rose Garden: The building popularly known as the ‘Rose Garden’ in Old Dhaka is not a garden of roses, but in reality it was a pleasure lodge, built by a Hindu zamindar 'Hrikesh Das' in the late 19th century at Narinda quarter of Old Dhaka. The building has elegant Corinthian columns. Originally there was a fountain, the structure of which still remains. The garden has several classical marble statues. This tall, massive building is in good condition and stands proudly reaching the skyline of old Dhaka.

Rebati Bhavan

Rebati Bhavan: Situated in the Sutrapur area of Old Dhaka on Rebati Mohan Das Road, the Sutrapur Zamindar 's mansion was constructed on a one acre land by an Hindu landlord 'Rebati Mohan Das' in the early 20th century. The building contains about thirty-five rooms of varying dimensions. There is another three-storied block on its northern side. It is said, after the demise of Rebati Mohon Das, his elder son Satyendra Kumar Das, retained the ancestral Rebati Bhavan, while his younger son Hemendra Kumar Das constructed the new house on the north. This new house was named Das Lodge that contains about the same number of rooms.

Bhajohari lodge in Tipu Sultan Road

 
Colonial tenament house of early 20th century

Bangabhaban - Presidential Palace Dhaka

Bangabhaban (pic of Govt. house in 1938)

Site map (top)


Governor Gen Azam Khan (hat on) and architect M. Chisty on his left during construction in 1962-63.

Bangabhaban - President's House Front view at present

Durbar hall- damaged view in air attack during 1971 war

Bangabhaban, the official residence and office of the President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is located in the middle of approximately 23.5 hectares of land to the south of Dilkhusha Commercial Area and to the south-west of Motijheel Commercial Area, Dhaka.

In 1905, Bengal was partitioned and the new government of East Bengal and Assam bought a portion of this place from the Nawabs of Dhaka to construct a building for the Viceroy of India. The Viceroy used to stay here during his visits in East Bengal up to 1911. Until 1947, the place was known as Governor House. The building was severely damaged by a storm in 1961 and old roof blown away. Architect Moinuddin Chisty from Karachi was engaged to prepare a plan for the reconstruction work by PWD. The Bangabhaban is largely based on Victorian architecture that typify many buildings of the British-era in Dhaka. With the reconstruction between 1961 and 1964, many elements of Islamic architecture and Bengali styles were incorporated. In 1971 liberation war, the Governors' House was badly damaged during air attack on the 14th December. The Governor House was renamed as Bangabhaban on 12 January 1972, when Justice Abu Sayeed Choudhury became the first constitutional President of the country. It is still the official residence of the President of Bangladesh. The main building is a three-storeyed palatial complex. The floor-space of the ground floor is 6,700 sqm. The President's residence is on the north-east corner, comprising two storeys. The President's office, the office of the civil and military secretaries, rooms for audience with local and foreign visitors are also located in the ground floor. In addition, there is a cabinet room, banquet hall, durbar hall, state dining hall, mini auditorium and a lounge for local visitors. In the second floor, there are suites for foreign heads of state and government. Besides, there are two bungalows for the military secretaries, staff quarters and barracks for Presidential Guards etc. The Bangabhaban has an open compound of 47 acres of land.

The present site of Bangabhaban has a long history. During the Sultanate period in 15th century, a sufi saint called Hazrat Shahjalal Dakhini used to reside in the area. His tomb along with the graves of his disciples are there. The single domed tomb building (having two sarcophagi inside) lies to the north-east of the main gateway of Bangabhaban is ascribed to Shah Jalal Dakhini. During the Mughal rule, Mirza Mukim took control of the area and became the official-in-charge. There was 'Nawara Mahal', two big hillocks, one of them still lies within the boundary of Bangabhaban. The large water body/tank inside came to be known as Motijheel (lake of pearls) because of the legend that Mirza Mukim's daughter used to throw her ornaments there. The area was probably abandoned towards the end of the Mughal period. During british rule the area went to an Armenian zamindar Manuk who built a house. Nawab Khawaja Abdul Ghani bought the place and house from Manuk and built Dilkusha (heart's pleasure) Garden there.

Baby Walk in Montreal

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Rickshaw Art - Dhaka

Dhaka is famous as a city of Rickshaws with unique and popular arts. The paintings and decorations on the three-wheeled cycle cannot be assigned to any static "genre". They are popular as opposed to "fine" arts. They appropriate multiple forms which include folklore, classical art elements, and commercial forms. They also reflect the economic globalization process, which is occurring all over the world today, and display a fascination for movie stars and narratives.


















*Some pictures are taken from "Bangladeshi Arts of the Ricksha" by Joanna Kirkpatrick