Doel Chattar

 

The Doel Chattar (aka The Doel Square) is a sculpture of our National Bird, the oriental magpie-robin, locally known as the Doel. It is a popular place for shopping traditional Bangladeshi handicrafts made of bamboo, wood, jute and pottery.

Dhaka Doel Chattar

In the old days, where the Doel Chattar or Doel Square stands today, near Curzon Hall there used to be a market for slaves. People were sold by merchants from far and wide, who were then taken by their masters, to far off lands like Sumatra, Afghanistan, Syria, and many other places. Dhaka city  is nearly 500 years old. The city is engulfed with many secrets of the past. It is a large city and being the capital of the Mughal Empire, there was open trade and business and the cost of living was cheap.  As the population in the city increased, so did the demand for slaves.

There is proof of slave trading in Dhaka found in many different Bengali and English historical documents. This Doel Square was then a slave market called Nakkhas.


The Doel square is in the exact spot where this slave market used to be. Right by it was the Dhaka Gate the entrance point to old Dhaka City.  Nakkhas is a Persian word for slave market. In those days slave trading was a normal thing. Many people were involved in slave trading both from Bengal and Abroa. 

 The gate was built by Mir Jumla II in 1660s.


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