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Looking Back

Ahsan Manzil, popularly known as the Pink Palace, is situated at Kumartuli, Islampur along the banks of the Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It used to be the official residential palace and seat of the Nawab of Dhaka. Though its construction was started in 1859 and completed in 1872, its initial history stretches far back to the Mughal era. From a garden house of Sheikh Enayet Ullah, the landlord of Jamalpur District to a Grand Palace of residence of the landlord of Dhaka, Khwaja Alimullah, it was also used as a trading house for French traders who build a big pond they called “Les Jalla” beside the palace. After getting freedom from French and English influence, it was finally bought by Khwaja Alimullah from the French and added a family mosque to the compound. After his death, his son Nawab Bahadur Sir Khwaja Abdul Ghani made extension as well as renovation to the property, and named it "Ahsan Manzil" after his son Khwaja Ahsanullah. He renovated the old building at the west called "Andarmahal" and extended it to build "Rangmahal" which was at the east side of “Andarmahal”.
Ahsan Manzil went through reconstruction several times due to severe damage in natural calamities. A tornado that occurred on 7 April 1888 in Dhaka damaged it greatly to the extent that the western block of Andermahal was completely demolished and later it was entirely rebuilt. The present day octagonal dome of the palace was also built during that time. This place was also damaged again during the earthquake of 1897 but Nawab Khwaja Ahsanullah repaired the whole place again. This is said to be the first house in Bengal to install electric bulb during British era.

Decline & Restoration

After the death of Khwaja Ahsanullah in 1901, the glory of Ahsan Manzil was ended. His successors could not 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. After the independence of Bangladesh, most of the nawab family went to abroad in search of a better livelihood and work. On 1974, the owners of the palace decided to put it up for auction. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman cancelled its auction proposal option. On 2 November that year, he ordered to establish a museum and tourist centre after its proper conservation. In 1985, Dhaka National Museum acquired the property and made it a museum following a massive restoration programme which utilised historic photographs of the property. After the completion of the renovation work in 1992, under the supervision of the Directorate of Public Works and Architecture, it was brought under the control of Bangladesh National Museum.

Inside the Palace

There is a large drawing room, card room, library, state room and two other guest rooms are located on the Rangmahal. Totally in 23 rooms of that part of the palace have over 4000 artifacts. The ballroom, the Hindustani room and few residential rooms are situated on the western side. A beautiful vaulted artificial ceiling, made of wood, decorates the drawing room and the Jalsaghar. A splendidly decorated dining hall and few smaller rooms are placed on the west part. The floors of the dining and Darbar Halls are decorated with white, green and yellow colored ceramic tiles. The famous store room, where the valuables of the Nawabs used to be stored, was in the middle of the five rooms located in the western half of the ground floor. Along with those rooms a Darbar Hall or assembly hall and a chest room is also placed there.

The building structure was established on a raised platform of 1 meter. The building has a broad front-facing the Buriganga River. On the river side, an open spacious stairway leads right up to the second portal and on their stands the grand triple-arched portals. There was once a fountain in the garden in front of the stairs which does not exist today. All along the north and the south side of the building run spacious balconies with an open terrace projected in the middle.

There are attractive wooden stairs in the room that is attached to the north of the domed room. The balusters were ornamented with vine leaves made of iron along the railing of the stairs. The wooden ceiling of the room, decorated with geometric designs, is very elegant. The verandas and rooms are covered with marble. The doorways are placed within semi-circular arches. The inner doors had multi-colored glasses. Wooden beams supported the roof of these rooms. This kind of architecture and decoration made it one of a kind of tourist attraction in Bangladesh.

Ticket for a Trip

It takes only BDT 20 per person to pay for a trip around this Pink Palace. Kids under age 12 can pay BDT 12 per person for a ticket. The tickets are free for physically disabled persons as well as for school-going children with pre-application to visit there. For foreigners, it’s a bit expensive comparing to these prices mentioned already. They will have to pay BDT 100 per person. But given the walk along the path of history they’ll have there, it’s worthwhile to say the least.