TERM PAPER HST 103 ID: 14209010 NAME: JANNAT ARA HOQUE DEPARTMENT: S.O.L SUBMITTED TO: Professor Afsan Chowdhury SUBMITTED ON: 12/04/15

History of furniture and its evolution in Bangladesh At present furniture is a part and parcel of our day to day life. A person cannot even think of a house, office or a business firm without furniture. Every person rich or poor has furniture in his house with accordance to his financial conditions. But people of the late Permian period (260-245) million years ago, Triassic period (245-2080 million years age, Jurassic period (208-140) million years ago didn’t even think of something called furniture. The eve of using furniture started with the advent of the Neolithic age when people started to make their lives comfortable and started agriculture. Though food, clothing, and forming family were major issues but furniture also became the need of people. People needed a place to sleep and the concept of making bed started,. They needed place to sit and so they started making chairs. They needed a place to eat together so they made dinning tables. Then with the change of time furniture also changed and people started to make furniture modernized. Furniture changes with society Furniture has a strong connection with society. Soon after the evolution of history people were divided in various classes. The two main classes were the ruler and the ruled or the rich and the poor. These class variations also bought variations in furniture. The rich people i.e., the Mughal emperors, the nawab families, the zamindars used furniture made with high quality wood long lasting and durable the furniture were also curved with beautiful arts. They were also curved with beautiful arts. They were also made with marble stones. The different types of furniture used during the ancient period are described below: Bed The aristrocat families used beds named “choki” which were curved with statues used as pillars at the bottom and the four corners contained long stands curved with arts of animals or birds the beds were very big in size and also in height. The emperors used stairs to get up to the bed and they also had mirrors in the front side of the bed . the bed sheets were made of soft feathers of swan or soft wools. These beds are at present preserved in different museums of india and bangladesh. The nawabs of ancient Bengal were addicted to ‘hooka’ (a pot with a pipe used for smoking). They always had a side table beside them for keeping the hooka. The beds of the nawabs and zamindars were decorated with beautiful crafts and also contained marble stones in the pillars of the beds. On the other hand the common men of Bengal could not use such aristrocatic furniture. Their beds were very simple mostly made with low quality woods and contained little or very few art works. But they also had pillars on the four sides of their beds. The ancient beds used by the zamindars and nawabs can be seen in Bangladesh national museum at present. The collections of furniture from the early 19th century from lohagar jessore, nagorpur tangial , farispur gives us a real example of beds used by the people of ancient Bengal. Chairs The emperors and the nawabs had special types of chairs called thrones. These are termed as shinghashons in bangla. The place where the emperors and nawabs used to sit and give people instructions about their works. These thrones were special types of chairs sometimes even made of gold, silver , marbel ect and beautifully decorated with arts and crafts works. There was symbols of lions on both sides of the thrones and behind the throne there were beautiful crafts work of crown. The common people didn’t have these special types of chairs they had simple chairs made of woods with few or no crafts works. These chairs are seen in museums. Side tables: Side tables were very commonly used furniture in ancient Bengal. The nawabs , zamindars, used to use these side tables. The coming of these side tables started with the british rule. The british used to drink wine and thus they always used these side tables to keep theirs wine bottles. After the british rule was over these side tables were used by the nawabs and zamindars to keep their hookas. Sometimes these side tables were used by the ancient people to keep beautiful decorative lamps. The use of these lamps were very common those days since torch was not invented. And electricity was very rarely got by people. Planquin: Palanquin or palki was a traditional furniture used during marriages. The event of palanquin started during the Mughal period . the wives of Mughal emperors were bought from their parents’ house to their in laws house in these plakis. These were made of dark woods. These plakis had two small doors which had small holes so that the bridge inside can see from inside. The palanquin had two long handals extended from both sides by which the palkis were carried . the palkis were not used by common people. The palkis are also not seen today but they are preserved in museums. Partitions Partitions were used by the ancient people especially by the wives of emperor and nawabs. The emperor’s wives were not allowed to come in front of the common men usually. They were kept behind these partitions so that common men cannot see them. these partitions were made of durable and long lasting wood and were very nicely decorated with crafts and woods. These partitions were not used by common people and are neither used at present. Chest (shindook) These chests or shindooks are very large sized boxes made of curved woods , steel or marble stones. These chests were very heavy and were used to keeo valuables like money, plates, gold coins etc. these chests were beautifully decorated with crafts and curved works. Khaiyal This is an utensil used by the ancient people for crushing rice and spice. It is made of heavy metal and it has two parts o pot and a handle which is very heavy. This is used by the common people not by the aristocrats. Husking pedal: Husking pedal commonly known as dekhi is used to crush rice. This was used by the common people and is still seen in some rural areas. This is a machine made of wood and is also has a pedal . Cupboards: Cupboards were not used by the nawabs or zamindars they used shindooks to keep their chlothes. With the evolution of time cupboars were also used. Some furniture were used by the common people like shakher hurni, nakshi hat pakha, plates made of stones, war drums, mandi tuba etc. Furniture in my family: A few months ago I had a chance to go to my village . I had a conversation with my grandmother about the furnitures they used. She told me about some and showed me some of them. T saw a big box made of wood and covered with a wooden lead. It was rectangular in shape and she termed the wooden piece as shindook. It was about three feet in width and length. It also had a lock in it. She said she used to keep the valuables in it. But now as she has a wall cabinet and also a cupboard she doesn’t use it. My grandmother showed me a peculiar type of bed named chowki which had four pillars on four sides and it looked very beautiful. She said these types of beds were very comm years back. The most strange thing about the bed was that it was about three feet above the groung and when I asked my grandma how to get on the bed. She showed me a staircase with which we can get on the bed. I saw some small chairs called pidhi which were used for sitting. My grandma said there was nothing called sofa during those days in my family only chairs were used. She also showed me a small box which had a lock in it and said that my garanfather used to use it to keep cash and coins and she told me that it was a small version of shindook. Then I went to one of my relatives house he showed me a wooden door called copath. It had two shutters and it was closed with a khilli. They said their house was covered with a type of fence named nokshi beda. My personal furnitures My house is beautifully decorated with interior decorations and furnitures. We have 5 beds sweet and simple in style from a furniture company called hatil. A computer table, a dinning table which has a glass on top with 6 chairs very nicely decorated with curved works, sofas made of lethers and wall cabinets in every roomb to keep clothes. Some glass racks to keep showpices a shoecase, four reading tables , a trolly etc. these are the furnitures of my house and I use almost all of them. The use and the size and shape of furniture changed with the lifestyle of people. Atlat I can say a common saying that : “ necessity is the mother of inventions” ie is people of the ancient time invented furniture to fulfill their necessity and at present we are also using furniture according to our needs and wants.