Matiabag Palace

Matiabag Rajbari
General information
Architectural style	Assamese architecture
Location	Gauripur Assam India
Coordinates	26.5°N 89.58°E / 26.5; 89.58
Client	Royal family of Gauripur

Matiabag Rajbari or Matiabag Palace is in Gauripur in Dhubri district of Assam. It is a beautiful palace at Matiabag hill and on bank of the Godadhar river. Because of this it is called Matiabag Rajbari. It was used as Hawakhana by the Royal family of Gauripur. It was used as residence by famous pre-independence era actor and director (Devdas movie famed) late Pramathesh Chandra Barua. It was the residence of Padmasree late Pratima Barua Pandey, the great Goalpariya Lokgeet singer (folk singer) and Parboti Barua, the Elephant Queen (also called Hasti kanya). The palace exhibits a unique structure and architecture in the region.

History

As per people's belief, once Raza Pratap Chandra Baruah (local chief of Rangamati) was hunting in the forest and saw a frog which was eating a snake. He was surprised to see this unnatural thing. Being a very strong devotee of Goddess Mahamaya, he believed that it was a message for him from Mahamaya. Afterwards, he constructed a temple for Goddess Mahamaya and named the place as Gauripur after the alias "Gauri" of Mahamaya.

He shifted his capital of Zamindari from Rangamati (now in Bangladesh) to Gauripur. After moving to Gauripur they built the Matiabag Rajbari Palace as the permanent residence for the family.

Transportation

Driving distance from Dhubri to Gauripur is 9 km and from Guwahati to Gauripur is 261 km. The nearest railway station is at Dhubri. Well-connected airports are at Guwahati (261 km) and Bagdogra (226 km).