Paribagh is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

. It is situated in the north of

Shahbagh Shahbag or Shahbagh (also Shahbaugh, bn, শাহবাগ, Shāhbāg, ) is a major neighbourhood and a police precinct or ''thana'' in Dhaka, the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. It is also a major public transport hub. It is a juncti ...

. It was once the residence of the

Dhaka Nawab family The Nawab of Dhaka (Bengali: "ঢাকার নবাব"), originally spelt in English Nawab of Dacca, was the title of the head of largest Muslim zamindar in British Bengal and Assam, based in present-day Dhaka, Bangladesh. The title of ''na ...

. It is now popular for the food street located on Old Elephant Road.

Name

There are two theories about the naming of Paribagh area. According to many, Paribagh area is named after Pari Bano, daughter of

Khwaja Ahsanullah Nawab Bahadur Sir Khwaja Ahsanullah KCIE (22 August 1846 – 16 December 1901) was the third Nawab of Dhaka. He also authored books in Persian and Urdu under the pen name of Shaheen. Ahsanullah is recognised for his philanthropic works in Beng ...

. Pari Bano was the half-sister of

Khwaja Salimullah Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur (7 June 1871 – 16 January 1915) was the fourth Nawab of Dhaka and one of the leading Muslim politicians during the British rule in India. In 1906, the Muslim League was officially founded at the educationa ...

. It was the garden house of Nawabs of Dhaka. Before that the area belonged to Hindu landlords. Khwaja Salimullah bought the area from the Hindu landlords. The garden house came to be known as Paribagh as the abode of Pari Bano. Another view is that Khwaja Salimullah visited

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

without informing his father. He married Pari Begum there. As Pari Begum used to live in Paribagh, the area is named Paribagh.

History

In this area in 1902

planned to build a garden house of

. There were many low places in this area which were always waterlogged. He filled the low lands and made gardens there. He built many buildings in this area, one of which is the Paribagh House. Three years after starting work on the garden, he established a mosque in the area which still exists. In 1952, after the

government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...

confiscated the property of the Nawab family of Dhaka,

Khwaja Habibullah Nawab Khwaja Habibullah Bahadur (26 April 1895 – 21 November 1958) was the fifth Nawab of Dhaka. He was the son of Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur. Under Habibullah's rule, the Dhaka Nawab Estate went into decline until its actual relinqu ...

, another member of the family, started to build a residence called Green House in the area. Since then, most of the members of the family lived in Paribagh.

Food street

There is a street food zone in this area. The street food zone is located on Old Elephant Road. In every evening, makeshift food stalls line both sides of the street. It is one of the popular food streets in Dhaka.

References

{{reflist Dhaka Nawab family Neighbourhoods in Dhaka Restaurant districts and streets in Bangladesh