Sonakanda Fort a Mughal
river-fort located on the eastern bank of the
shitalakshya
at Bandar, almost opposite
hajiganj fort in Narayanganj
district. A group of river forts, erected by the Mughals, guarded the water
routes to Dhaka and other places of strategic importance and the Sonakanda Fort
is one of them.
The fort, under the protection of the Department of Archaeology and Museums,
has been restored and repaired several times. The defensive walls and the
massive artillery platform are still in existence. It is quadrangular in plan,
measuring 86.56m×57.0m and surrounded by a 1.06m thick brick-wall, 3.05m in
height, with inner and intermediate bastions.
The wall is built solid at the bottom. There is a
circular artillery platform with a staircase on the west side, which leads up
to the raised artillery platform to be entered by a five-foil arched gateway.
The artillery platform, meant for a big calibre cannon aiming at the attackers
coming up the river, is a new feature of the Mughal river forts in Bengal.
The platform has two circles of which the inner is 15.70m and the outer is
19.35m in diameter respectively. It is 6.09m in height and surrounded by walls.
The corner bastions on both sides of the western wing are wider than those of
the eastern wing, which are 4.26m, while the two on the western wing are 6.85m
in diameter.
The fort has two main parts; one is a fortified rampart wall of enormous
dimension, which has numerous wide and narrow loopholes. And the other part,
the most important one, is a raised outwork on the western face. Excepting the
artillery platform, there is no trace of any permanent structure within the fortification
walls. All round, the walls are crowned by machicolated merlons, which are on
average one metre high.
The fort is provided with a single entrance gate on the north. The arched
gateway is placed within a rectangular frame and both the sides are decorated
with several plastered panels. The lofty arch of the entrance gateway is of the
four-centred variety. There are four corner bastions. Unlike the bastions of
the forts at Hajiganj and Idrakpur the bastions of this fort are octagonal in
plan.
The fort is not dated by any inscription. Though the construction of this
fort is attributed to
mir jumla, there is no evidence for
this. On stylistic similarities with other Mughal river-forts in and around
Dhaka it is datable to the mid-17th century.
Hajiganj Fort is a Mughal
Fort. It was built on the bank of Shitalakshya River at present-day Hajiganj in Narayanganj,
Bangladesh.
According to Munsi Rahman Ali this Mughal fort was probably established during
the time of Mir Jumla. On the other hand Ahmed Hasan Dani on his “Muslim
Architecture in Bengal” said that Islam Khan build the Fort after setting the
capital at Dhaka. As there is no stone inscription found at Fort it’s still
undecided who build it but Mughal use this fort to counter the raids of the
Maghs and the Portuguese Hajiganj Fort situated on the western bank of the Sitalakshya River at
Hajiganj in Narayanganj. This Mughal fort was probably established during the
time of mir jumla to counter the raids of the Maghs and the Portuguese.
