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Lalbagh Fort, an incomplete Mughal palace fortress in
Dhaka stood on the banks of the river Buriganga in the
southwestern part of the old city. The river has now
moved further south and flows at Quite a distance from
the fort. D’Oily’s painting (1809-1 I) shows that more
than half of this east-west oblong fortress touched the
water of the river on its southern and southwestern
sides. The construction of the fort was commenced in
1678 AD by Prince Muhammad Azam during his I 5 month
long vice-royalty of Bengal.
For a long time the fort was considered to be a
combination of three buildings (the mosque, the tomb of
Bibi Pari and the Diwan-i-Aam), two
gateways and a portion of the partly damaged
fortification wall. In the present fort area of 7.2
hectares, excavations have revealed the remains of
structures. Of the three surviving gateways, the
southern one is the most imposing. Seen from the front
it is a three-storied structure with a fronton, bordered
with slender minarets. From inside it gives the
impression of a two-storied structure.A water channel with fountains at regular intervals
connects the three buildings from east to west and two
similar channels run from south to north. The building
in the middle, the tomb of Bibi Pari, is the most
impressive of the surviving buildings of the fort. Eight
rooms surround a central square room, containing the
mortal remains of Bibi Pari, which is covered by a false
dome. Octagonal in shape, and wrapped by brass plate.
The entire inner wall of the central room was covered
with white marble. While the four side central rooms had
stone skirting up to a height of one meter. The wall in
the four corner rooms was skirted with beautiful glazed
floral tiles. The tiles have recently, been restored;
two of the original tiles have been retained. The
southeastern corner room contains a small grave,
popularly known to be of Shamsad Begum, possibly a
relative of Bibi Pari. The Lalbagh Fort Mosque is a
three-domed mosque with a water tank.One of the most
graceful monuments of the Sultanate period is the
Chhota Sona Masjid or Small Golden Mosque at Gaur in
Rajshahi. Built by one Wali Muhammad during the reign of
Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah (1493-1519), it was
originally roofed over with 15 gilded domes including
the 3 ChauchaIqa domes in the middle row, from which it
derives its curious name. |
