Thursday, December 25, 2008

Murshidabad Tour

I have been searching for interesting places around Kolkata for weekend tours. I have already visited three interesting places  - Bakkhali, Sundarbans and Digha. This time around we headed to Murshidabad.

Here in this post, I have liberally lifted from a government site on Murshidabad. So most of the info and language is from the site.

Murshidabad Site of the Govt.

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Murshidabad is well connected with Kolkata. From Kolkata, Berhampore, the District capital town of Murshidabad is 195 Km. Tourist taxi, hired car, auto-rickshaw are available from Berhampore to visit the tourist spots at Murshidabad town, Azimganj, Jiaganj, Kandi, Sagardighi, Karnasuvarna ..etc .

Communication By Rail

Berhampore Court is the main station which is connected with Sealdah Station at Kolkata. The Bhagirathi Express & the Lalgola Passenger from the Sealdah Railway Station reach Berhampore Court Railway Station covering 197 km in 5 to 6 hours.

Khagraghat, the other station at the opposite bank of the river Bhagirathi is connected with the Howrah Station. Teesta Torsa, Kamrup, Hatey Bazare express have stoppage at Khagraghat Railway Station. The Khagraghat Railway station is also connected by local trains from Katwa, Salar, Bandel and Howrah. One can also reach Khagraghat Station from Howrah by Janshatabdi Express.

  • Howrah - Maldah JanShatabdi Express

Farakka is the most well connected railway station of this district. Farakka is 98 km by road from Berhampore and is connected by every express bus coming from Malda, Siliguri, Raiganj, Coochbihar, New Alipurduar, Gangtok, Balurghat, and Jalpaiguri. The following trains stop at new Farakka Junction: -

  • Sealdah Guwahati Kanchanjungha Express

  • Sealdah New Alipurduar Teesta Torsa Express

  • Howrah Dibrugarh Kamrup Express

  • Sealdah New Jalpaiguri Darjeeling Mail

  • Sealdah Katihar Hatey Bazare Express

  • Sealdah Malda Gour Express

  • Delhi Dibrugarh Bhramaputra Mail

  • Bhiwani Malda Farakka Express

Also one can reach Berhampore from Azimganj. Teesta Torsa, Kamrup, Hatey Bazare, Kanchanjungha and Uttarbanga Express touch Azimganj Junction Railway Station. This place is well connected by bus from Berhampore. 

Communication By Road

Buses ply frequently from Kolkata (i.e. from Sahid Minar, Ultadanga etc) to Berhampore. Most of the North Bengal bound bus have a halt at Berhampore.

Buses from nearby district town of West Bengal i.e. Burdwan, Rampurhat, Suri, Bolpur, Malda, Krishnagar and Durgapur regularly ply to Berhampore.

The district got its present name in the early eighteenth century and its present shape in the latter half of the eighteenth century, the earliest evidences of history in the district date back to the pre-historic days perhaps as early as circa 1500 B.C.

The capital city of Sasanka, the great king of Gouda (comprising the most of Bengal) in the seventh century AD and perhaps that of Mahipala, one of the later Pala kings of Bengal, were in this district too. The Nawab Murshid Quli Khan made Murshidabad the capital city of Sube Bangla, comprising of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The East India Company reigned from here for many years after the Battle of Plassey; Travellers extolled its glory through ages.

Here thrived the cultures of many races and of religions like Buddhism, Brahmanism, Vaishnavism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity. Here settled the European traders like the Dutch, the British, the French and the Armenians.

The great river Bhagirathi has bifurcated the triangle shaped district and has divided it into two broad historical and geographical regions.

I) The Radha Area – This is the area on the right side of the Bhagirathi having the pre-dominant geographical character of a plateau. It was also known as Gouda.

II) The Bagdi Area – This is the area on the left side of the river formed by the Gangetic alluvial deposits. It was also known as Bangal. This area was formed later than the Radha.

Our trip started with a visit to an old palace in Berhampur.

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Then we proceeded to the Cosimpur Raajbari or Palace, but found it locked, timings are 10 AM to 5 PM.

Here's a pic from outside

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Then we proceeded to the Dutch Cemetery

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Next we went to Motijheel. Motijheel is about one km South of Lalbagh. This beautiful horseshoe shaped lake was excavated by Nawazesh Mohammad, the husband of the famous Ghasseti Begum. In the palace adjoining it (now in ruins) Lord Clive celebrated the acquisition of the Dewani of Sube Bangla (Bengal, Bihar & Orissa) in 1765. Moti Jheel was the home of Warren Hastings when he became the Political President at the Durbar of the Nawab Nazim ( 1771 - 73 AD ). Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teinmouth, also lived here. Moti Jheel is also known as the "Company Bagh", due to the fact of it having been in the occupation of the East India Company. The only old building existing is the Mosque of Shahamat Jang

To the east of Nawajesh Muhammad's mosque, is a small enclosure within which are four tombs and to the east of which and outside it is one tomb. Here lies the mortal remains of  Shahamat Jang alias Nawajesh Muhammad, Ekram-ud-Doula the younger brother of Siraj-ud-Doula, Ekram-ud-Doula's Tutor, Shumsheree Ali Khan the General of Nawajesh Muhammad, and the Nurse of Ekram-ud-Doula..

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Couldn't get an aerial pic of the beautiful Lake.

Then we went to see the JahanKosha Gun. It is a  huge cannon and is about 1 km of Katra.  It was built in the early 17th century by craftsman Janardan Karmakar of Dhaka. Kadam Sarif is a beautiful mosque near Jahan Kosha said to contain a replica of the footprint of Hazrat Mohammad, the prophet. The canon is 17.5 ft long and weighs 16,880 lb., with a girth of 5 feet at the touch hole end. The diameter of the touch hole is one and a half inches, and that of the orifice is 6 inches.

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It was very crowded and unfortunately i couldn't get a clear shot!!! :(

Off then to Katra Mosque.

Katra Mosque is about one and a half km from Murshidabad Railway Station on the Berhampore-Lalgola Road. This imposing structure was built by Nawab Murshid Quli Khan in 1723-24 and it remains one of the most important tourist attractions. The gorgeous building with its huge domes and high minarets has a simple cemetery of the Nawab below the front staircase.

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Next from the car we saw the Footi Mosque. Footi Mosque is an unfinished work by Nawab Sarafraz Khan. Though not well publicised, it is worth seeing for its unique architectural style. About three quarters of a mile to the east of the Hazarduari Palace, at Kumrapore, is the Footi Masjid. It is said to have been built by Sarafraj Khan in a single night.

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Next we saw the Kathgola or Kath golaper Bagan. Katgola, the palace garden of Raja Dhanpat Singh Dugar and Lakshmipat Singh Dugar and their famous Adinath Temple were built in 1873, by Harreck Chand. The walls of this temple are also intricately designed. A typically Jain style of ornamentation lends a unique beauty to this Jain temple. It is about half a km South-East of Mahimapur. Though some of its glory has been lost, it still remains a major tourist attraction, chiefly because of the beautiful temple with an admirable work of stucco.

Here are two beautiful pieces from there.

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The rest of the tour in the next post.