User:Md. Mutasim Billah Maruf/sandbox

--Md. Mutasim Billah Maruf (talk) 11:06, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Sonakanda Fort

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.

Like the Hajiganj river fort in Naryanganj, this fort, too, is located at a major junction of two rivers, the Shitalakshya and the Brahmaputra. It is larger than the Hajiganj river fort. The rectangular enclosure walls have an additional projection consisting of a raised platform within an enormous circular bastion overlooking the river. This platform is entered by a refined cusped arched entrance at the top of a staircase in the fort’s interior. Most probably a large cannon was mounted in this strategic position.

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.

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Category:Fort Ancient culture