"Let's go to Mushirdabad".A month back,the moment Debanjan da told me this,I felt surprised.Why should our next destination be Mushirdabad and not some other place? I was aware of the fact that Mushirdabad is a historic place and has nothing much which can attract someone.After many yes and no's,I arranged the tickets for Mushirdabad for all of us.Even at that time,I was confused with the same question in my mind,"Why Mushirdabad?"And the journey starts here.We boarded Lalgola express and reached Lalgola station at 4:30 am.The hotel's location was in the outskirts of the town so we took a auto-rickshaw (popularly known as Toto by the town-dwellers) and reached the hotel by 5 am.Driver was very polite & friendly.He told that he will pick-up us for the tour of Mushirdabad sharp at 9 am.Once again,the same thing started wobbling in my mind..."Murshidabad ! Why?"We started from the Motijheel Mahal.It was spooky enough or one may call it mysterious.The guide told us pointing towards a shattered-structure that from the Mahal,a secret under-ground path was made by the Nawabs and they used the shattred- structure as a secret chamber for something no one knows about.One English man tried to destroy the chamber by bursting-out the wall but it was so thick that he couldn't even scratch it.After that incident,the man died followed by the death of his son which is still a mystery.Infront of the Mahal,there was a big pond,Motijheel.The Nawabs used to cultivate pearls there.
After that,we went to the famous Katra Masjid and by the time we reached the gate,Mushirdabad started capturing my mind with its beauty and I felt enthralled.Murshid Kuli Khan,who was the founder of Murshidabad had built the beautiful mosque.He was a Hindu by birth and his original name was Darpanarayan Mishra.He was unaware of his identity but later,he faced this reality and pleaded to his parents to accept him but was rejected.Being vindinctive with this incident,he started destroying every temple in Murshidabad.We saw some of the bricks where Goddess Saraswati's Veena had been inscripted.
The Mosque's dome was shattered after 1837's earthquake.The guide described us the facts related to that place and we were literally gulping each of them.We could feel the Nawab's era right there as if we were a part of the same.The feeling was amazing!
We moved further to Jahankosha Kaman,the house of Jagat Seth,Kath golap ( Rose) garden,Nasirpur Rajbari,Hajarduari.Jagat Seth was a person who had hailed from Gujarat and had taken shelter under Nawab Siraj-Ud-Daulah.He was a real king-maker & was very rich.Seth helped Mir Jafar in the great conpiracy before the Battle of Plassey in order to take revenge on Siraj-Ud-Daulah as once he had slapped Seth in his courtyard.
We visited Seth's house and there,we saw a potrait of a lady,Hira Bai.It was an oil painting.The lady was divine and her beauty was unparalleled.She was a famous dancer of that period and she used to charge 5000 gold coins for an hour to dance.I had heard of love at the first sight but it was for the first time that I was actually feeling it.One of my friends Dattatreya Mridha ,was in love with her ravishing beauty.From there,we moved forward to the Kath golap garden,a place of amusement for the Kings.
Another beautiful mansion was on the cards next,the Nasirpur rajbari.The two things that we noticed there were the idol of Goddess Kali in which the tongue of Goddess was inside her mouth and was not out which was unusual and the second thing was the another beautiful photograph of Heera Bai.
Later,we visited Hajarduari and Imambara after having lunch.The Hajarduari palace has been built by Nawab Humayun Jah.He was one of the eighteen Nawabs of Murshirdabad.The palace is situated at the side of Bhagirathi river. In front of the palace,a wonderful structure,painted white from east to west, has been built .It was the Emambara.
Sadly,we couldn't enter into it as the notice board present there contained that the Imambara remains open only during the periods of Muharram for 10 days.We skipped Hajarduari palace museum's visit on that day and we went for that place on January 26.After that,we crossed the Bhagirathi river by a boat and visited some more places in the opposite side of the river.The main place among all was the graveyard of Nawab Siraj- Ud-Daulah.He was the last independent Nawab of Bengal.After visiting other places,we returned to our hotel by 7pm.While coming back,we crossed the Bhagirathi river again .There,we were caught by the sunset view which was amazing.History with natural beauty soothes the mind.
We hired an SUV (Scorpio), the next day and started our journey towards Gour,Pandua at 6:30am.It took us 3 hours to reach Pandua.During the journey,we crossed the famous Farakka bridge.At first,we visited a place called "Adina Masjid",which is one of the biggest mosques in India.It has been constructed in an area of 122 bigha.From there,we moved to Gola ghar.Then,we went to Gour from where King Shasanka had ruled Bengal.He was the last indepedent Hindu king.We saw Baraduari,Bara shona masjid,Lukochuri Darwaza and Firoz Minar,one by one.We personally felt that Gour was better than Murshidabad.After the completion of visiting the pages of history,we came back to the hotel by 7:30pm.
On the last day of our trip,we again visited Hajarduari.We saw the Hajarduari museum and it was an amazing experience.I can't share each and every details of the museum as I'm failing in words.It's a worth visiting place.Thus, I request everyone to go and see the beauty of the museum once.
Finally,we boarded the train at 3:30pm to return to our places.
It was the time to say adieu to the wonderful places.Those have left my mind with incalculable beautiful pictures and I was stupefied by the historical ravishing beauty.I was so much captured with those beauteous places that I was not willing to come back. A smile emantated in my heart and I promised that I would visit again Murshiabad,someday someday.
It was the time to say adieu to the wonderful places.Those have left my mind with incalculable beautiful pictures and I was stupefied by the historical ravishing beauty.I was so much captured with those beauteous places that I was not willing to come back. A smile emantated in my heart and I promised that I would visit again Murshiabad,someday someday.