Muntassir Mamoon
It is not known exactly when the French arrived in Dhaka but they came after the English, probably in the 17th century. They had a bungalow in Tejgaon. The French traders could not run their business very well and as a result, they left Dhaka within some years. In 1832 only one French person was reported to live in Dhaka.
Farashganj
The correct pronunciation for Farashganj is Frenchganj because the French traders used to live here in the 17th century. Somewhere around 1730, the French East India Company had come to Dhaka and Ahsan Manzil was their kuthi.
The French did not stay in Dhaka for long and their kuthi was closed in1784. In 1740 Dhaka’s Nayeb Nazim Nawazish Mohammad Khan had allowed the French to establish a ganj or market in Farashganj. Gradually this market place came to be known as Farashganj.
Farmgate
The British government had built two farms in Dhaka for agricultural development and one of them was situated in this area. Because of its gate, it was called the farm gate area.
Fulbaria
According to some, the flowers or ful for making attar was supplied from this place and that is how it got the name Fulbaria. However, some say that the name may have come from the tomb of a particular Ful Shah in that area.
Historians say that in ancient Bangla, most of the Hindu temples had an adjoining garden for supplying flowers or ful for the worshipping ceremonies and these were known as Ful Bari or flower houses. May be this area in Dhaka also had a Hindu temple with a flower garden and so was named Fulbaria.
Translated by Promila Kanya
