Haripur Zamindarbari | Brahmanbaria
Haripur Zamindarbari
The traditional Haripur Zamindarbari (that means Zamindar house) stands as a witness of time on the eastern bank of Titas River in the village called Haripur of Nasirnagar upazila under Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh. Some people call this Zamindarbari Rajbari, while others call it Barabari.
This beautiful and vast house stands as a reminder of the past on the western side of the Madhavpur bus stop on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway and the western side of Haripur village on the last border of Nasirnagar upazila. It is known that Zamindar Gauri Prasad Roy Chowdhury and Krishna Prasad Roy Chowdhury built this Zamindarbari at Haripur in the 19th century CE. After the death of Krishna Prasad Roy Chowdhury on 12 Chaitra 1343 Bangla, the Zamindar house was successively inherited by Haripad Roy Chowdhury and Shanti Roy Chowdhury. From them, the ownership and Zamindari of the house came under the possession of Upendra Roy Chowdhury and Harendra Roy Chowdhury. It is also known that after the partition of the country in 1947 CE, when the Zamindari system was abolished, all the members of the Chowdhury family left the Zamindar house and moved to Kolkata in West Bengal, India.
The Haripur Zamindar house was built in a combination of local and Indo-European architectural styles during British rule. The two-storied Zamindar house built on about 4.80 acres of land has Rang Mahal, Durbar Hall, Paddy Gola, cowshed, kitchen, dance hall with about 60 rooms, mall pond, playground, temple, and boundary wall still intact.
There is a Paved Ghat of the Haripur Zamindarbari on the bank of the Titas River and the lofty Samadhi Math of Krishna Prasad Roy Chowdhury on the northern side and Gauri Prasad Roy Chowdhury on the south side in front of the Haripur Zamindarbari. The Zamindarbari building and the two lofty maths or temples built of red brick and lime-concrete masonry located in front of the Zamindarbari building are a reminder of the Zamindar clan heritage. The Zamindar house has six staircases on six sides to reach the second floor of the building, an additional six bedrooms in the west-north corner, four bedrooms on the east bank, and four bedrooms on the west bank of the mall pond.
No rod is seen anywhere in this huge house built entirely of brick. However, the use of iron beams and terracotta tiles is observed in the construction of the roofs. The exterior of the house built in the aesthetic style of architecture has elaborately carved walls, pillars, and cornices. However, all the rooms in this house have old doors and windows without frames and panels. Some parts of the walls of the house have fallen. Only a small portion of the spectacular craftsmanship survives. Nowhere else can such a large ancient house be seen in the eastern plains of the Meghna and Titus rivers of Bangladesh.
A large number of visitors flock from different parts of the country to see the spectacular Haripur Zamindar house. The beauty of the house increases especially during the monsoon season when the Titas are flooded with water. Once upon a time the traditional boating competition used to start from the river ghat of Haripur Zamindar Bari. Many films including Madhumalti, Ghetu Putra Kamala, and Nayori have been shot in this house.
According to the gazette published by Bangladesh on 31 May 2018, Haripur Zamindar Bari is a protected antiquity declared by the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. This Zamindarbari is supervised and preserved by the Department of Archaeology under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Bangladesh. Since the announcement of protected antiquity, the Bangladesh Department of Archaeology has started conservation work on the internal building including the boundary wall of the house, and is currently ongoing. [Md. Shahin Alam]
Reference: Department of Archaeology, Bangladesh.
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