Motijheel Park & Historic Lake, Murshidabad

Motijheel — the 'Pearl Lake' — is a beautiful horseshoe-shaped oxbow lake just south of Lalbagh, Murshidabad, steeped in the most dramatic chapter of Bengal's history. The lake and the palace beside it were created around 1750 by Nawazish Muhammad Khan, the son-in-law of Nawab Alivardi Khan and husband of the famous Ghaseti Begum. Pearl cultivation in the lake gave Motijheel its name. Nawazish Khan built here the grand Sang-i-Dalan ('Stone Palace') and a mosque known as the Kala Masjid. After Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah seized Ghaseti Begum's treasures from Motijheel — wealth that partly financed the conspiracies against him — the palace became a witness to the fall of independent Bengal. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Motijheel became the residence of Lord Robert Clive, who held the grand ceremony here in 1765 celebrating the East India Company's acquisition of the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa — the moment British rule over India financially began. Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General, also lived here, as did a young Lord Clive's rival-successors during the Company era. It is thus often called the place 'where British rule in India was born'. Today Motijheel is developed as an attractive eco-tourism park ('Prakriti Tirtha') with boating on the lake, gardens, light-and-sound show on Murshidabad's history, and children's attractions — a pleasant blend of leisure and history. The surviving Kala Masjid and remains of the old structures still stand by the lake.