Sardah Chhota Kuthi is one of two historic "kuthis" (houses) on the campus of the

Bangladesh Police Academy Bangladesh Police Academy (BPA) is a 100-year-old police training institute. It is the Alma Mater of police training in Bangladesh. It is located 20 miles from Rajshahi City. Location Bangladesh Police Academy is located at Sardah under Chargha ...

in Sardah,

Rajshahi district Rajshahi District ( bn, রাজশাহী জেলা) is a district in mid-western Bangladesh. It is a part of the Rajshahi Division. The metropolitan city of Rajshahi is in Rajshahi District. Geography Rajshahi district is bounded by Naoga ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. The officer's mess is housed in the second kuthi, Baro-Kuthi. The principal's residence is located in Chhota-Kuthi.Book name-Architecture, Cultural Survey of Bangladesh Series-2, ISBN (invalid) 984-300-000965, , , Editor-ABM Husain, Page Number-356, Published by-Asiatic Society of Bangladesh

History

Sardah Chhota Kuthi was built in 1781 by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

for their

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

factories. The

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

acquired it in 1835, when it became the "Sadar", or "principal headquarters", of 152 indigo Kuthis in Rajshahi region. This is where the name 'Sardah' derived. The stables were originally the sites of the indigo factory which later became a

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

factory. Later the whole establishment came under the Midnapur

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

and was used as a "Kutchery".

Architectural description

The Sardah Chhota Kuthi is a single-story building with nine apartments. It has about 31 m frontage overlooking the river and is about 15.5 m wide. The central block is higher than the front

verandah A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

and is provided with a

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

window. The 4.5-m-wide front verandah, carried on eight pairs of

Doric columns The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

and the corners being supported on sets of four, is approached up a broad central staircase. The building is considered to look simple but attractive.Book name-Architecture, Cultural Survey of Bangladesh Series-2, ISBN (invalid) 984-300-000965, , , Editor-ABM Husain, Page Number-357, Published by-Asiatic Society of Bangladesh

References

{{coord missing, Bangladesh Tourist attractions in Bangladesh Buildings and structures in Bangladesh Rajshahi District