Curzon
Hall meant to be a town hall, was named after Lord Curzon, the Viceroy
of India, who laid its foundation in 1904. A year later Bengal was
partitioned and Dhaka became the capital of the newly created province
of East Bengal and Assam. Following the annulment of partition in 1911
it was used as a premise of Dhaka College, and after the establishment
of Dhaka University in 1921, became part of the university's science
section and continues as such. Laid out in a spacious and carefully
maintained garden, this double storeyed brick building has a large
central hall, lateral wings on the east and west with several rooms, and
a continuous verandah on all sides.
One
of the best examples of Dhaka's architecture, it is a happy blend of
European and Mughal elements, particularly noticeable in the projecting
facade in the north which has both horse-shoe and cusped arches.
The
style combined traditional art with modern technology and functions
and favoured Mughal forms such as arches and domes, believed to have
entered the Islamic world from the west. It marks the casting aside of
veiled power after the sepoy revolt of 1857, and India's passing
directly under the British Crown, seeking legitimacy by linkage to the
Mughals. The red colour substituting for red sandstone, and the ornate
brackets, deep eaves, and domed terrace pavilions (chhatris), specially
of the middle section are strikingly reminiscent of the small but
well-known Diwan-i-Khas in the palace fortress of Fatehpur Sikri,
Emperor akbar's capital between 1570 and 1585. Not only were both
cities new capitals, but the deliberate choice of the Fatehpur Sikri
style may be explained by the fact that the British favoured Akbar as
the wisest and most tolerant of all the Mughals, feeding into the ideal
of their own role in India.
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