Nashipur Rajbari & Jagat Seth House, Murshidabad

The Nashipur Rajbari (Nashipur Palace) is a grand early-20th-century palace on the northern side of Murshidabad, built in 1865 and expanded around 1904–1906 by Raja Kirti Chandra Singha Bahadur of the Nashipur Raj family. The dynasty descends from Debi Singha, the powerful and controversial revenue farmer of Warren Hastings' time, whose name is associated with the harsh tax collection of 18th-century Bengal. The palace, modelled with a classical columned facade reminiscent of Hazarduari, contains thrones, courtrooms, family temples of Ramchandra and Lakshmi-Narayan, and galleries of the Raj family's possessions. The temple complex within the Rajbari remains active, and the annual Ram Navami celebrations here are famous. Recently restored, the Rajbari with its evening illumination is among the most photogenic monuments of Murshidabad. Close by stands the House of Jagat Seth, now a museum — the mansion of the family once called 'Banker of the World'. The house of Jagat Seth Fatehchand and his successors financed Nawabs, merchants and the East India Company alike; in the mid-18th century their banking house was reckoned among the richest in the world, handling sums that dwarfed European banks. The museum displays coins, hundis (traditional bills of exchange), muslin so fine it could pass through a ring, secret underground rooms, and a tunnel said to lead toward the river. The role of Jagat Seth Mahtab Chand in the conspiracy against Siraj-ud-Daulah before Plassey makes this house one of the key sites where the fate of Bengal was sealed. Together, Nashipur Rajbari and the Jagat Seth House bring alive the world of zamindars and bankers who stood behind the throne of the Nawabs.