According to Cambridge Dictionary a “Fort” is “a military building
designed to be defended from attack, consisting of an area surrounded by a
strong wall, in which soldiers are based”
Chevaliers C. D. and El-Din Q. S. (2009) discovered the
following:
“From very early history to modern times, walls have been a
necessity for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and
conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first
small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been
built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the
huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). A Greek Phrourion was a fortified
collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of
the Roman castellum or English fortress. These constructions mainly served the
purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and lands that might
threaten the kingdom. Though smaller than a real fortress, they acted as a
border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch and maintain the border.”
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| "Lalbagh Fort" Photo:Review of Bangladesh |
As we know, Forts in modern usage often refer to space set
aside by governments for a permanent military facility; these often do not have
any actual fortifications, and can have specializations (military barracks,
administration, medical facilities, or intelligence). There are many few of
forts in Bangladesh. We find only six of them and they are Hajiganj Fort,
Idrakpur Fort, Jangalbari Fort, Jinjira Palace, Sonakanda Fort and Lalbagh
Fort. (Category: Forts in Bangladesh. 2015).
Rahman, Habibur (2012) contended that “Lalbagh Fort or Fort
Aurangabad, an incomplete Mughal palace fortress at Dhaka on the river
Buriganga in the southwestern part of the old city. The river has now gone
further south and flows at quite a distance from the fort. The construction was
started in 1678 AD by Mughal Subahdar Muhammad Azam Shah who was son of Emperor
Aurangzeb and later emperor himself” .
Hasan, (1903) discovered the following:
Shaista Khan was the new subahdar of Dhaka in that time, and
he did not complete the fort. In 1684, the daughter of Shaista Khan named Iran
Dukht Pari Bibi died there. After her death, he started to think the fort as
unlucky, and left the structure incomplete., though he stayed in Dhaka up to
1688. After Shaista Khan left Dhaka, it lost its popularity. The main cause was
that the capital was moved from Dhaka to Murshidabad. After the end of the
royal Mughal period, the fort became abandoned. In 1844, the area acquired its
name as Lalbagh replacing Aurangabad, and the fort became Lalbagh Fort.
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| "Full View of Lalbagh Fort Area" Photo: www.indafri.com/ |
Now In 2016, Lalbagh is danger with some potential dangers.
First of all, Dhaka is already known as an earthquake friendly zone. In last
several years Dhaka faced some back to back earthquakes between 5.0 to 6.8 in
the Richter scale and any how survived without any major loss but nobody think
Dhaka will survived if Richter scale touched 7.5 or more. So, it’s an ultimate
potential danger towards Lalbagh. Secondly, In recent time one side o Lalbagh
is claimed by a development company and literally they wanted to broke down
some parts of Lalbagh fort to build some apartment though the claim was
declined by our Honorable High-Court but next time they can come back again
with other name with more logistic support. That’s could be another potential
danger towards Lalbagh. Lastly, I don’t think Lalbagh is not taken as care as
it needed. So, eventually if Lalbagh don’t get more care it’ll destroyed by the
flow of time.
Though some tiles on the floor are already damaged, some
glasses are broken, some artifacts are stolen and removed, some very important
features are destroyed by the visitors and time but it’s already high time to
protect this evidence of our golden fast.
After visiting Lalbagh and talking with the tourists of
Lalbagh, I can say that Lalbagh is one of the most visited historic place in
our country. Tourists from home and abroad come there the experience the past
of our country. Generally, tourists from home is more than from abroad but in
terms of knowledge tourists from abroad do a lots research and homework than
ours because most of our home tourists come Lalbagh to just pass the time in a
beautiful place with their friends or families or beloved one. On the other
hand, tourists from abroad came to Lalbagh to know something more about
Bangladesh or to research and educational parpasses. They know pretty much
everything about the basic information of Lalbagh. In addition, Department of
Archaeology of Bangladesh mark most of the archaeologically significant area
and object in the site which helps to interpretation the site and visitors get
accurate information about this site.
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| "Lalbagh Fort Gate" Photo: www.mapio.net/ |
Finally, Lalbagh is not facilitated enough. The road to
Lalbagh is very narrow like others old Dhaka road. Lalbagh is easily accessible
anyone can go there. I had not seen any tour guide in Lalbagh which badly
needed to understand the site more closely. Lalbagh has washroom for there
visitors but there is no restaurant in the compound of Lalbagh but there are
many outside of the Lalbagh but surrounding area the archaeological site
affects the site there is many multistoried buildings surrounded by Lalbagh,
which make contrasts between the site and its environment.
I would like to
complete my paper with some stories of Lalbagh. The Archeological Heritage of
Bangladesh. (2011) contended that “From the time of construction till date,
various myths have revolved around the fort. Among all the historical stories
and debates, it is widely believed that Lalbagh Fort stands as a monument of
the unfulfilled dreams of Prince Muhammad Azam, beloved son of Emperor
Aurangzeb. In the mid 17th century, he was serving as the Viceroy of Bengal and
began the construction of the impressive Lalbagh Fort complex.
Therefore, the popular stories about the fort begin. Before
the construction was finished, Prince Azam was called back to his father, to
assist in the war against the Marathas. Legend says after the Mughal prince
departed, Shaista Khan continued with building the project, but upon the
untimely death of his much-loved daughter Iran-Dukht, warmly known as Pari
Bibi, the construction was stopped. Bibi was engaged to Prince Azam at the time
of her death.
There are also legends and debates about the identity of
Pari Bibi. Few researchers claim she was a nine-year-old Ahom princess. Mir
Jumals Ahom’s expedition brought a war adjoining the Garo hills. He took the
daughter of Ahom Raja to compel him for the full execution of the previous
peace treaty. Later, the emperor made her convert to Islam and married her off
to prince Azam. However, overshadowing all the debates, people now believe that
she was the loving daughter of Nawab Shaista Khan.” (p. 592).
Reference:
Cambridge University Press. (2013). Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary &
Thesaurus. Retrieved from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fort
Category: Forts in Bangladesh. (2015). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Forts_in_Bangladesh
Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din, (2009). UNESCO.
Rahman, Habibur. (2012). "Lalbagh
Fort". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal,
Ahmed A. Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of
Bangladesh (Second ed.),
Hasan, Sayid Aulad. (1903). Extracts from the Notes
on the Antiquities of Dacca.
Published by the author.
Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. (2011). The Archaeological
Heritage of Bangladesh.
