Idrakpur Fort is a river fort situated in Munshiganj, Bangladesh. The fort was built approximately in 1660 A.D. According to a number of historians, the river fort was built by Mir Jumla II, a Subahdar of

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

under the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

, to establish the control of Mughal Empire in Munsiganj, and to defend

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

and

Narayanganj Narayanganj () is a city in central Bangladesh in the Greater Dhaka area. It is in the Narayanganj District, about southeast of the capital city of Dhaka. With a population of almost 1 million, it is the 6th largest city in Bangladesh. It is als ...

from the pirates. The fort was a part of the triangular defence strategy for the vulnerable river route, from where the pirates used to attack Dhaka. The strategy was developed by Mir Jumla II with the help of the other two forts in Narayanganj- the

Hajiganj Fort Hajiganj Fort, also known as Khizirpur fort, situated at Hajiganj locality of Narayanganj, Bangladesh, on the western bank of Shitalakshya. History The exact date of Hajiganj fort is uncertain but it may have been built soon after Subahdar Isl ...

and the

Sonakanda Fort Sonakanda Fort is a river fort situated in Narayanganj, Bangladesh, on the eastern bank of Shitalakshya River. Though the time of its establishment could not be ascertained, historians believe that the river fort was built by Mir Jumla II, a ...

Background

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

took over the control of the Bengal in 1574 AD after defeating Daud Khan Karrani. Mughals exercised a progressive rule in Bengal. Bengal was then a very wealthy province and was frequently attacked by the pirates. The Mughal Empire was then locked into a civil war regarding the succession of Emperor

Shah Jahan Shah Jahan I, (Shahab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram; 5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also called Shah Jahan the Magnificent, was the Emperor of Hindustan from 1628 until his deposition in 1658. As the fifth Mughal emperor, his reign marked the ...

. Shah Shuja, the second son of Shah Jahan and the Subahdar of Bengal, led a campaign to

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

to take over the throne.

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

, after his accession to the throne wanted to appoint a man with high skills in naval warfare as the river-oriented Bengal was the strong hold of Shah Shuja. So he entrusted Mir Muhammad Saeed Ardestani alias Mir Jumla II who was a successful trader in maritime trades in first life, to deal with Shah Shuja. Mir Jumla II rushed to the Bengal compelling Shah Shuja to retreat. Later, Mir Jumla II was appointed as the Subahdar or the governor of the then Bengal province in 1660. Mir Jumla was aware of the pirates who used to run a campaign of terror in the important cities of Bengal. After his appointment as the Subahdar, he shifted the capital of Bengal to Dhaka from Rajmahal. In a quest to protect the capital Dhaka from the pirates, Mir Jumla II developed a triangular defence strategy and decided to build up three river forts near Dhaka. One of these three forts is Idrakpur Fort of Munshiganj.

History

Idrakpur, now Munshiganj was a strategically very significant point as it was the junction of a number of rivers including Meghna River, Shitalakshya River, Ichhamati River and Dhaleshwari River. The fort was built on the bank of the junction of Ichhamati River and Meghna River. The Portuguese and Magh pirates used this point to move forward to Dhaka through Shitalakshya River. On their way to

they used to loot other important cities like

Sonargaon Sonargaon (; ; Literary translation, lit. ''Golden Hamlet (place), Hamlet'') is a historic city in central Bangladesh. It corresponds to the Sonargaon Upazila of Narayanganj District in Dhaka Division. Sonargaon is one of the old capitals of ...

and Bikrampur. Mir Jumla II was determined to protect Dhaka and eager to develop the wealthy area Bikrampur. So, he came up with a triangular defence strategy to protect the cities from the Portuguese pirates. Idrakpur Fort was the centre of his strategy. The erection of the fort was intended to check the advance of the Magh and Portuguese pirates proceeding towards the Mughal capital city of Dhaka. The fort was also used as the naval base of the naval fleet of 200 frigates under Mughal admiral Abul Hossain. According to the strategy, whenever the pirates made an attempt to advance to Dhaka the Mughal soldiers would be ordered to start firing mortars both from the cannons of their 200 battleships and from the Idrakpur Fort leaving the pirates with no options but to retreat or die on the rivers. However, if any of the pirate ships survived the initial attack and tried to advance to Dhaka the Sonakanda Fort and the Hajiganj Fort, situated on the eastern and western bank of Shitalakshya River respectively, would start throwing round-shots to those ships and vessels and sink all the pirate ships on the river. It was probably built in about 1660 A.D.

Architecture

Idrakpur river-fort is different from the other Mughal forts and has a number of unique features. The fort is apparently divided into two parts- the eastern part and the western part. The quadrangular eastern part and the polygonal western part combined into the complete fort. The brick built fort comprises a wider open area surrounded by wall with bastions at the angles. The thick wall runs from north to south measuring 86.87-meter in length and 59.60-meter in width. The wall has machicolations from where the enemies on the river was targeted and the mortars were fired. There are a number of towers from where the movement of the enemies were observed. The most significant feature of the fort is the circular drum it has in the eastern part of the fort. The circular drum is further enclosed by another fortification wall, which was used for mounting a huge cannon. The elevated circular drum of 32.5-meter in diameter and 9.14-meter high and can be reached by a staircase. The drum comprises three subsequent layers. Another remarkable feature of the fort is the existence of a staircase leading to a secret room at the foot of the drum. The staircase leads to a secret underground chamber which was the magazine or storehouse for arms and explosives. According to some myth the staircase was a part of the secret tunnel linked with Lalbagh Fort. The main entrance gate of the fort is on the north with a high rectangular bastion crowned by machicolated merlons which served as a guard room.

Gallery

Idrakpur Fort-012.jpg Indrak pur fort.jpg ইদ্রাকপুর দুর্গ 05.jpg ইদ্রাকপুর দুর্গ 10.jpg Idrakpur_for-Munshigonj_sadar.jpg

References

External links