Tracing the forgotten past of Dhanmondi

During British rule, Dhaka's first planned residential area was Wari. Then, in the Pakistan period, focus shifted to Dhanmondi, known before that era as the 'Dhanmondai field'. 

According to writer and historian Muntassir Mamoon's book 'Dhakar Smriti 3', eminent litterateur Samaresh Basu spent much of his childhood in Dhaka's Ekrampur.

"The Dhanmondai field was a vast, empty stretch. Around it were football clubs. When football teams came from Kolkata, grand tournaments were held here. From our Ekrampur, the place was far away, so we were forbidden to go alone. Only when there were political gatherings could we go along with the elders," an excerpt from the book quotes Basu as saying.

After Partition, the C&B Department (now split into the Roads and Highways Division and the Public Works Department) acquired 500 acres of land from the Dhanmondai field. 

Most historians agree that the name Dhanmondi is derived from Dhanmondai. The word 'Dhanmondai' means wholesale paddy market.

Many of the elderly residents recall having seen paddy fields there. One such account comes from Syed Salauddin Hossain, grandson of Syed Mozzaffar Hossain of Dhanmondi Road No 6. According to him, even in the late 1960s, there were still paddy fields in Dhanmondi. Houses were mostly single- or double-storied, with plenty of trees, especially coconut palms.

Their home had a Japanese family living as tenants — something quite common in those days, as almost every house hosted one or two foreign families. In the afternoons, they could be seen strolling along the footpaths. Like most Dhanmondi houses of that time, Salauddin's ancestral home has now become a multi-storey building.

"From the time New Market opened, construction and sale in the Dhanmondi residential area picked up. Compared to today, the plots were handed out at unbelievably cheap rates." Foyez Ahmed, journalist

Among the few houses that have retained a trace of the old Dhanmondi is Taruchhaya on Road 15/A. Built in 1986, the house originally belonged to a psychologist. He later sold eight kathas of the front plot to the father of Kamal U Ahmed. Kamal, a BUET mechanical engineering graduate of 1978, later established his own business. Taruchhaya now serves as his office. No one resides there anymore.

The house stands as a point of contention between heritage and modernity. His brothers want to hand it over to a developer, while Kamal wishes to preserve his parents' memory. The furniture in his parents' room has been kept as it was.

Since his mother's nickname was Taru, the house was named Taruchhaya (Taru's shade). Back then, most Dhanmondi houses bore names connected to trees or greenery — Tarupallab, Chhayabithi, Aranyak, etc. Even today, Taruchhaya hosts a large neem tree, several mango trees, and coconut palms.

In the 1990s, Dhanmondi remained Dhaka's prime elite residential area. Kamal recalled how, after graduating and briefly working in Sylhet, colleagues would look at him with respect when they heard he lived in Dhanmondi.

By the mid-1950s, DIT (Dhaka Improvement Trust, now Rajuk) began dividing Dhanmondi into one-bigha plots and allocating them. As it was then a remote village on the edge of Dhaka, the attraction for the place was naturally low. DIT therefore targeted government officers. When persuasion failed, pressure was applied.

Yet, the price per bigha was only Tk5,000. After paying the sum, officers would return home gloomy, lamenting to relatives, "I have thrown my money into the water."

According to Kamal, before independence, no more than 30% of Dhanmondi's houses had been built; the rest came after 1971. His father owned a Fiat car, in which they visited their maternal uncle's house in Rayerbazar.

In those days, Dhanmondi residents shopped at New Market; there were no nearby bazaars. Rayerbazar sold river fish, but that hardly sufficed for all household needs.

Journalist Foyez Ahmed recalls, "From the time New Market opened, construction and sale in the Dhanmondi residential area picked up. Compared to today, the plots were handed out at unbelievably cheap rates."

New Market itself was built with Dhanmondi and Azimpur residents in mind. Opened in 1954, people gossiped that it was Prime Minister Nurul Amin's "family market". It was then a posh place, unmatched by any other market in Dhaka. Kamal remembers Novelty, the famous ice-cream parlour there.

During the Pakistan era, Dhaka hosted the deputy high commissions of foreign states. After independence, these became full high commissions or embassies, many located in Dhanmondi — Bhutanese, Nepali, Swedish, and for a long time, Indian. Even today, German (Goethe-Institut), French (Alliance Française), Russian, and Iranian cultural centres are based here.

Before the internet, these centres used to have lively afternoon gatherings. Cinephiles dissected films of François Truffaut, Andrei Tarkovsky, Werner Herzog, Federico Fellini, joined by lovers of literature and music.

Another landmark of Dhanmondi is Chhayanaut, the music academy. Established in 1961, it was repeatedly suppressed by reactionary forces and often shifted locations. Finally, in 2006, it settled in its current home on Road 15/A. The site had been an abandoned house, redesigned by renowned architect Bashirul Haq into a graceful building — now a textbook case for architecture students across the country.

The Dhanmondai field was chosen for residential development largely thanks to Dhanmondi Lake. The plan was designed around it. Originally a branch of the Karwan Bazar canal, it is believed to have been part of the Begunbari canal system, running through Green Road, Kalabagan, Dhanmondi Lake, and eventually into the Turag.

The lake covers one-sixteenth of Dhanmondi — three kilometres long, 35 to 100 metres wide, dotted with three small islands and two bridges. Apart from beautification, it also served drainage purposes.

Pastimes around the lake included fishing with rods, competing with friends to see who caught more, and family boat rides in the evenings.

And where there is the lake, there had to be the famous Jahazbari (Ship House) at Road 5/A. People came from far and wide to see it, take photos, and return delighted. At night, its shadow fell over the rippling waters. Painted brown, shaped like a ship, its actual name was Chishtia Palace.

Businessman AKM Anwarul Haque Chowdhury, nicknamed Sher-e-Khaja, built it between 1993 and 1994 on 16 kathas of land. Chishtia Palace had two entrances — the first opening to a vast swimming pool, then another gate leading to a veranda and staircase.

It boasted 37 domes and minarets. After Anwarul Haque's death in 2011, his wife and children lived there until cracks appeared in parts of the building. They decided to demolish it and, in 2015, struck a deal with Shanta Holdings. In its place now stands a 14-storey building named Chishty's Yacht.

From 22 December 2023 to 24 January 2024, Alliance Française hosted an exhibition on old Dhanmondi. The brochure described Dhanmondi's distinct cultural identity, expressed through its two-storey bungalows, its grand Eidgah Mosque, Chhayanaut's melodious practice sessions, and the winding greenery of the lake. Fifteen photographs were displayed, taken by Roger Gowen, Shahidul Alam, Don Matson, Alauddin Ahmed, Rashid Talukder, among others.

Many of Don Matson's 1960s–70s photographs of Dhaka can be found in the Bangladesh Old Photo Archive — especially of Sadarghat, Dhanmondi, Kakrail Church and surroundings. His 1967 shot of Dhanmondi Lake shows a few two-storey bungalows on the banks. The present Abahani field was then a brick kiln — Matson's photo attests to it. Part of the frame also shows a water tank, which still stands today.

Two renowned painters lived in Dhanmondi: Safiuddin Ahmed and Mohammad Kibria. Both are now deceased, but their works continue to inspire art lovers at home and abroad. 

On Road 4, Safiuddin Ahmed's house once hosted the gallery Chitrak. Though the old house no longer exists, a multi-storey building has replaced it, with Chitrak still occupying part of the premises. Bengal Shilpalay on Road 27 is another important venue. Though rebuilt, the new structure remains aesthetically impressive and well-suited to exhibitions.

Of course, the most widely recognised house of Dhanmondi is No 32 — the residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which witnessed many of the nation's historic events. The house was demolished by agitated protestors on 5 February this year in the aftermath of previous year's July Uprising. 

But to trace Dhanmondi's roots, we must go further back — to the era of Shah Shuja and Shaista Khan. Around 1640, Shah Shuja, son of Emperor Shahjahan, was Subedar of Bengal. His Dewan, Mir Abul Qasim, was tasked with constructing a vast Eidgah for the Mughals to gather for prayers. Searching for an open, tranquil site outside the city's hubbub, he chose the very area that is now Dhanmondi. Historians suggest that Mughal nobles and officials began settling around the Eidgah.

Later, another Mughal monument arose here — the Sat Gambuj Mosque. Built around 1680, it is believed to be the work of Shaista Khan, though some say his son Umid Khan commissioned it. Its architecture resembles that of Lalbagh Fort Mosque and Khwaja Ambar's Mosque. With three central domes and four smaller ones atop corner towers, the mosque earned its name "Seven Domes". Its walls, four feet thick, measure 38 feet in length and 27 feet in breadth. These Mughal religious edifices gave Dhanmondi its early identity.

Over the centuries, the landscape has transformed. From Mughal-era artistry to a planned 1950s residential zone, today's Dhanmondi is crowded with towering buildings. On Satmasjid Road, eateries are countless; traffic is ceaseless. 

Those like Kamal, who saw the Dhanmondi of the 1970s–80s, try to adapt with time. Yet, every so often, they sigh and whisper quietly to themselves, "Ah! What days those were."