Sudipta Mitra: Pearl by the River :Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdo...

Sudipta Mitra: Pearl by the River :
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdo...: Pearl by the River : Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in exile (Rupa Publication India )                             Vintage...

Pearl by the River :

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in exile

(Rupa Publication India )

 

 

 

                      Vintage photograph of Sultan Khana

 

Wajid Ali Shah rented a palatial house in Garden Reach paying five hundred rupees per month for it. The house was a riverside resort of the Maharaja of Burdwan. However, the English records state that the government was conducive to finding a decent abode for the ex-king and his retinue. Therefore, a palatial riverside resort that belonged to Sir Lawrence Peel, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court in Calcutta, at Garden Reach was rented out to him. Wajid Ali’s own book Sheo-e-Faiz indicates that after his arrival in Calcutta Wajid Ali stayed in the house of Burdwan’s Maharaja, which was rented at five hundred rupees per month. Wajid Ali Shah’s writing testifies―

 

Raja Bardhawan ki kothi panch saye ki kiraet per raisa.

 

Meaning-Burdwan’s Maharaja’s kothi was rented at five hundred rupees per month. Therefore, the information that Sir Laurence Peel’s house was arranged by the British, is not true. Moreover, the mansion of Laurence Peel is more than five kilometres away from the Shahi Masjid along the river. Contemporary narrator Abdul Halim Sharar, described Shahi Masjid as King’s personal worship place located adjacent to his palace - Sultan Khana.

 

The Mansion of Sir Laurence Peel

 

Presenting a vintage photograph of the original Sultan Khana built by Wajid Ali Shah at Metiyaburj. See on the left hand side the old building structure, which belonged to Maharaja of Burdwan and rented to the King. Alongside, also see the Bungalow of Sir Laurence Peel in today’s perspective.

  

Grab your copy Pearl by the River : Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in Exile to read more…..

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Pearl by the River :

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in exile

(Rupa Publication India )

 

History had never been kind to Wajid Ali Shah. It is difficult to decipher the real man from all that has been written about him. The prying of a superior power forced him to relinquish his crown and prudence urged him to accept his destiny. Yet, his heart refused to settle down in a dull life of blankness. In the misery of banishment, the King tried to paint subtle impressions of life in the style he had nurtured all through his life. It was with his keenness that the archetypical mannerism of Lucknowi sensibilities was implanted in the hearts of the Bengali intelligentsia.

 

A new style of dance, drama, poetry, cuisine, etiquette, music and melody was impregnated into Calcutta and continues to exist even today, deeply entrenched into the city’s culture. The long chronicles of pathos and romance that could be heard from his mausoleum can fill endless volumes. Notwithstanding the British conspiracy to obliterate all traces of Awadh royalty from Calcutta and to annihilate the last chance of insurrection against the colonial power, Wajid Ali Shah successfully left his indelible footprint on the sands of time.

 

Today, Wajid Ali Shah’s Metiyaburj is lost in the dingy alleyways, stinking sewerage, dump yards, hyacinth-choked ponds and feculent riverbanks. It is sad to note that very few Calcuttans today, are aware that Wajid Ali Shah lived almost half of his life in the city. His concluding days in this colonial capital remain unknown even to the people of his native town. Only the inconspicuous Sibtainabad Imambara with seventeen odd graves of the Royal family and few dilapidated holy places in Metiyaburj can dredge up the memories of the deposed king in Calcutta. Yet unknowingly, the mesmerizing spell and enthrall of the Badshah’s momentous labour of love remains entwined even today in every skein of the Bengalis’ cultural life. Only the propounder remains an unknown entity.

 

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