MUGHAL DHAKA AND THE LALBAGH FORT:PART - IV

Of the much publicized secret passages of the Lalbagh Fort no definite evidence is available. Exploration by the Department of Archaeology inside the huge bastion adjacent to the south-eastern Gate revealed, apart from different building periods, a descending passage with a stairway subsequently sealed off by a hastily improvised wall, that led into the thickness of the rampart. The passage, however, could not be cleared as the huge stone lintel supporting the superstructure of the bastion wall was found dangerously cracked in the middle. The other subterranean possible secret passage may found in a bastion of the southern defense wall. A regular staircase descends below to the level of the surrounding ground from where it bifurcates and spirals down deep below to unknown destination, dark and damp. Apprehending the existence of poisonous gas inside the dark passage, the quest was abandoned and subsequently closed.

As briefly noticed earlier, only 20 years after Bawab Shaista Khan’s departure from Dhaka and the transfer of capital from Dhaka to Murshidabad the importance of the city steadily shrank to insignificance. From the diary of William Hedges, the Director of the East India Company who visited Dhaka in 1689, we learn that the Lalbagh Palace-fort was used as a barrack of the Company’s soldiers and a prison.

In 1757 it witnessed the climax of a grim political drama enacted earlier on the battlefield of plassey. The milling crowd on either banks of the old Ganges watched, in stifled silence, the drowning of Amina Begum and Gasheti Bagum, the mother and aunt of the hapless defeated Nawab Sirajuddaullah, with their royal barge that carried them from the Zinjira palace acriss the river under the vengeful order of the pitiless Miron, son of Mirjafar Ali, the arch traitor of Bengal. The desperate cry of the royal ladies reverberated eerily on the river banks for help in vain, who ironically only a year back, dictated the destinies of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from behind the harem. Lalbagh Fort stood immobile as a helpless sentinel of the city to witness this tragic episode.

In 1765 the east India company secured the ‘dewani’ of Bengal, Bihar and orissa and forced the ‘Naib-Nazim’ of Dhaka, Nawab Jesaret Khan to leave the fort. Although Nawab Shaista Khan bequeathed Lalbagh Fort to his descendants by a ‘wakf’ deed, the pauperised successors hardly could defray necessary expenses for the maintenance of the Fort. As a result it rapidly fell into desolation and ruin. Bishop Heber in 1824 found it in ruins and enveloped in jungle.

In the uneventful declining days, however, the Fort once again, galvanized into tragic events in 1857. The great uprising in India against the British Raj, commonly known as the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ also had its stormy convulsions in Bengal. From a detailed account of the memorable events recorded in the Diary of Mr. Brennand, the then principal of Dhaka College, we get a graphic picture of the happenings at Dhaka. According to his account a detachment of ‘native’ Indian soldiers of the 73rd Infantry was stationed inside Lalbagh Fort. On the 22nd of November, it was decided by the British to disarm the Treasury Guards and the Sepoys at Lalbagh at 5 p.m. being apprehensive of trouble. Treasury Guards were disarmed peacefully but as soon as the British marine force reached Lalbagh they found the sepoys drawn up and prepared for resistince. When the sailors tried to force a passage through the broken portion of the wall near the south-eastern gateway a sharp but short encounter followed. The Sepoys, placing guns in front of the tomb of Bibi Pari, opened fire on the invading sailors with grape. However, eventually the sepoys were driven back to their barracks where they were bayonetted and spiked. There was a fierce fight at the end of the rampart in which the sepoys suffered heavily, leaving 40 of their brethren killed and many wounded and the rest escaped in the jungle. A large number of fugitive sepoys were captured and hung summarily from a banyan tree which stood near the present Bahadur Shah park. Other corpses of the mutineers, hung up from trees for several days at the present ‘Antaghar Maidan’, were deliberately kept up as a grim warning to other. Many superstitious and horror stories are narrated by the people of the surrounding localities who looked upon the scene of this tragic incident as haunted.

Subsequent history of the Fort is still painful. In 1844, the local English administrators ontained a permanent lease of the Fort at an annual rent of only Rs.60 fro, the poor successors of Shaista Khan and converted it into the police Headquarters of Dhaka. They used various buildings within the Fort for different purposes and constructed shabby temporary barracks indiscriminately within the premise, while the open space served as a parade ground. Many additions, alterations and large scale changes were made in it to suit their purpose. However, it was eventually protected by the Government in 1910 and only since 1962 onwards, under a planned scheme, all accretion feature of the fort restored. In 1979-80, a typical Mughal Garden was laid out inside the fort from the development fund with systematically planned blocks of grassy lawns and flower beds, pathways, canals, fountains and clusters of beautifully arranged ornamental plants. It offers for the first time, within the crowded lid city a desperately needed breathing space of recreation for dwellers with the preserved monuments, set in an attractive environment originally dreamt by the Mughal prince , who began its constriction three centuries ago. The splendour of this magnificent Palace-Fortress has disappeared with the ruthless passage of time but its picturesque remains, visible from long distance, stand out in immutable majesty and still attract crowds of visitors.