Dhaka | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

(2002 est. pop. 8.5 million). Located in central Bangladesh, Dhaka (formerly Dacca) lies on an alluvial terrace above the northern bank of the Buriganga River, which offers access to several of the major regional rivers, including the Brahmaputra, the Meghna, and the Padma. Dhaka's early history is linked to the prominence of the nearby administrative urban center of Sonargaon, which lay to the east along the Buriganga. Dhaka grew as a result of the commercial and political prominence of Sonargaon from the late thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, as indicated by the names of neighborhoods in the old town, which point to a pre-Mughal Hindu presence there. The old town is bounded by the Dulai River, a waterway coming from the north and curving eastward as it joins the Buriganga.

In 1610, the Mughal governor Islam Khan (ruled 1608–1613) chose Dhaka as the regional capital. He built an artificial canal joining the Dulai to the Buriganga, thus forming a western boundary for the old town. The Mughals expanded Dhaka to the west and north along the Buriganga, building two large forts and several major mosques. Dhaka was the center of the eastern Mughal empire, hosting diplomatic and commercial visitors from around the globe, including Sebastian Manrique, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, and Thomas Bowrey, each of whom published an account of his visit. During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Mughals allowed Europeans to build factories along the river; these structures were still extant when James Rennell's Bengal Atlas was published in 1780. An Armenian community grew in the old town, and the Portuguese built a small church and community in the northern suburb of Tejgaon. Dhaka remained the regional capital until 1717, when the Mughal prince Azim Shah (1697–1712) shifted the capital to Murshidabad.

During the eighteenth century, Dhaka's population and urban infrastructure declined; paintings of the city emphasize its decay, as evidenced by Charles D'Oyly's Antiquities of Dacca series, done between 1814 and 1827. In the nineteenth century, the British East IndiaCompany built the residential area of Wari in the old town and cleared Ramna Park to the north. Between 1905 and 1911, Dhaka was the capital of the short-lived province of East Bengal and Assam. After Independence and the partition of British India into Pakistan and India in 1947, Dhaka served as the capital of the East Pakistan province. In 1971, a bloody civil war led to the creation of the independent state of Bangladesh, with Dhaka as its capital. The American architect Louis Kahn (1901–1974) designed its striking parliament building (completed 1974). Dhaka has preserved its pre-Mughal, Mughal, and European histories in its contemporary urban fabric.

Ahmed, Sharif Uddin. (1986) Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Development. London: Curzon Press.

——, ed. (1991) Dhaka: Past Present Future. Dhaka, Bangladesh: The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

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