A lot of times, great initiatives begin with a singular dream. A dream that takes over and starts weaving its way into reality.

The Murshidabad Heritage Development Society (mhds.com) actually began with one such dream.

Scion of the Nowlakha family, a very prominent Sheherwali family of Azimgunj, Murshidabad, Sandip Nowlakha woke up one morning after a bad dream where he saw the ancient Jain temples built by his family and other related families fall into ruins.

For years he had not visited his family property at Murshidabad.

On making cursory queries it found that indeed the properties and temples of the Sheherwali families were in a deplorable situation.

The dream came to him like a vision and a calling.

He was soon to touch base with the other prominent Sheherwali families, most of whom had moved away from Murshidabad and settled to their present day lives elsewhere.

There was a strong attempt to come together to restore and revive their once forgotten and much neglected family legacies and integrate the past with the present to carry forward conservation efforts. In doing so Murshidabad Heritage Development Society was born.

MHDS and its able members are bonded over the attempt to unbury and preserve these beautiful parts of our common legacy. The legacy of Murshidabad and thereby that of Bengal.

A lot of these architectural beauties have been restored. Foremost amongst them are the Katgola Palace and its beautiful gardens originally built in 1870 by Rai Bahadur Lakshmipat Singh Dugar and Bari Kothi, built in the late 1700s, the residence of Rai Bahadur Budh Singh Dudhoria, which is now converted into a beautiful Heritage hotel. The Singhi House also will be going through restoration.

Quite apart from preserving the Built Heritage the Sheherwali community and MHDS has attempted to revive the intangible cultural heritage through popularizing its once forgotten cuisine in partnership with the Annual Dinners at ITC, the Annual Mango Festival both of which held in Kolkata as well as the Annual Murshidabad Heritage Festival which is held every year in Murshidabad.

Sheherwali cuisine is one of the finest vegetarian spread and is a wonderful mélange of the cuisines of the Rajasthan and Bengal

Flavors of food rich in ghee and bold spicy tastes that could survive in the tough climate of Rajasthan, met the distinctive local flavors of Bengal and the royal cuisines of the Afghans and later the Mughals. For those interested to know more about this delectable cuisine there is a wonderful book entitled "Sheherwali; Royal Vegetarian Cuisine of Murshidabad" written by Shri Pradip Chopra and contains some delicious recipes.

Similarly there are over a hundred varieties of Special Mangoes of Murshidabad. These mangoes were often specially created in hybrid varieties infusing seeds of other fruits and mango seeds to experience a unique flavor. These mangoes have lovely names, each telling a different story. Rani Pasand, Enaet Pasand, Bimli, Anaras, Kalapahar, Saranga amongst others.

The Annual Murshidabad Heritage Festival is a treat and includes Heritage walks, visits to various monuments, ruins and weavers locality, a boat cruise on the Ganges, art and craft created by local artisans; local boat race and kayaking display cultural program featuring local folk artistes and a sampling of the local Sheherwali cuisine.

The Cultural program held in the gorgeous gardens of the Katgola Palace was a sight to behold. The cultural event not only highlighted a fashion show where students of Textile College of Behrampore walked the ramp beautifully showcasing the famous Murshidabad Silk sarees but also had fabulous Odissi performance, Chhau performance of Purulia and Raibenshe performance which is a martial folk dance performed in Bankura, Bardhaman and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal. The grand finale was a mindb-lowing display of Fireworks over the gorgeous Katgola Palace.

The Heritage Walk took us to the gorgeous Charbangla Terracotta Shiva Temples built by Rani Bhabani of Nator, the beautiful Jain temples now mostly restored as well as a visit to the Nowlakha Kothi and the Dudhoria Rajbari of Azimgunj. All these Heritage Kothis are architectural masterpieces with grand pillars and architectural elements borrowed from Greek, Italian, Mughal Rajasthani and Bengali styles. Most of their interiors have Italian marble, intricate mosaic, Bengal Lime Work, pillars polished with sea shell lime, wooden carvings etc. These beautiful Kothis also bear testimony to the fall of the Nawabs, the Rise of the British, Indian Fight for Freedom and then the vandalism of the Naxal era.

No trip to Murshidabad is complete without seeing the light and sound show on the Battle of Plassey at the beautiful Motijhil gardens and a visit to the famous Hazarduari (a thousand doors) Palace which was built by architect Duncan Macleod and is a stately Indo Italian styled marvelous building with a grand flight of stairs statues etc. Hazarduari Palace Museum houses a spectacular collection of antiques, arms weapons, paintings, costumes, carriages, silver artefacts, cut glass chandeliers ceramic vases and much more

Out of the 1,000 doors, 100 are false. They were built so that if any predator tried to infiltrate the palace and escape, he would be confused between the false and real doors, leading to his timely capture by the Nawab's guards.

The enclosure where the palace is situated is known as Kila Nizamat or Nizamat Kila.

The campus except this palace, has in addition the Nizamat Imambara, Wasif Manzil, the Bachhawali Tope, Murshidabad Clock Tower, three mosques.

But even after all this, Murshidabad leaves you hungering for more. The amalgamation of so many powerful cultures, and the seat of Power for such a long time, There is so much more to explore here.

Photo credits: Banner Left: pretty pout; Banner Center: architecturaldigest.in; Banner Right: mhds.in

A lot of times, great initiatives begin with a singular dream. A dream that takes over and starts weaving its way into reality.

The Murshidabad Heritage Development Society (mhds.com) actually began with one such dream.

Scion of the Nowlakha family, a very prominent Sheherwali family of Azimgunj, Murshidabad, Sandip Nowlakha woke