Dhaka's annual Bengali New Year parade, its Jamdani sari, and its rickshaw art have been recognized by UNESCO as the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

[40][41] Another popular theory states that Dhaka refers to a membranophone instrument, dhak which was played by order of Subahdar Islam Khan I during the inauguration of the Bengal capital in 1610.

[42] Some references also say it was derived from a Prakrit dialect called Dhaka Bhasa; or Dhakkaiyya, used in the Rajtarangini for a watch station; or it is the same as Davaka, mentioned in the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta as an eastern frontier kingdom.

Pari Bibi, whose name means Fairy Lady, was legendary for her beauty, engaged to Prince Azam Shah, and a potential future Mughal empress before her premature death.

[citation needed] After the Battle of Buxar in 1765, the Treaty of Allahabad allowed the British East India Company to become the tax collector in Bengal on behalf of the Mughal Emperor in Delhi.

Bengali weavers went out of business after the imposition of a 75% tax on the export of cotton from Bengal,[64] as well as the surge in imports of cheap, British-manufactured fabrics after the advent of the spinning mule and steam power.

The narrow, winding, high-walled lanes and alleyways, the old high-ceilinged houses with verandas and balconies, the old neighbourhoods, the graveyards and gardens, the mosques, the grand old mansions – these are all still there if one goes looking".

[75] The city's hinterland supplied rice, jute, gunny sacks, turmeric, ginger, leather hides, silk, rugs, saltpeter,[76] salt,[77] sugar, indigo, cotton, and iron.

Similar to colonial boroughs the length and breadth of the Subcontinent, this development was typified by stately government buildings, spacious tree-lined avenues, and sturdy white-washed bungalows set amidst always overgrown (the British never did manage to fully tame the landscape) gardens.

On the political front, partition allowed Dhaka to project itself as the standard-bearer of Muslim communities in British India; as opposed to the heavily Hindu-dominated city of Calcutta.

[63] In 1906, the All India Muslim League was founded in the city during a conference on liberal education hosted by the Nawab of Dhaka and the Aga Khan III.

It started with three faculties and 12 departments, covering the subjects of Sanskrit, Bengali, English, liberal arts, history, Arabic, Islamic Studies, Persian, Urdu, philosophy, economics, politics, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and law.

During the political and constitutional crisis in 1971, the military junta led by Yahya Khan refused to transfer power to the newly elected National Assembly, causing mass riots, civil disobedience, and a movement for self-determination.

On 7 March 1971, Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman addressed a massive public gathering at the Ramna Race Course Maidan in Dhaka, in which he warned of an independence struggle.

[103] Dhaka bore the brunt of the army's atrocities, witnessing a genocide and a campaign of wide-scale repression, with the arrest, torture, and murder of the city's civilians, students, intelligentsia, political activists and religious minorities.

[120][121] The city is surrounded by six interconnected river systems—the Buriganga and Dhaleshwari in the southwest, Turag and Tongi Khal in the north, and Balu and Sitalakhya in the east—which support trade, transport, and stormwater drainage.

The National Parliament House is located in the modernist capital complex designed by Louis Kahn in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, while the Ganabhaban, known for being former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's official residence, is situated on the north side.

Microcredit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank[156] and BRAC (the largest non-governmental development organization in the world) are based in Dhaka.

[151] Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications, and service sectors, while tourism, hotels, and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy.

By the 1990s, the affluent residential neighbourhoods of Gulshan, Banani and Uttara in the northern part of the city became a major business centre and now hosts many international companies operating in Bangladesh.

Major trade associations based in the city include: The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) had a market capitalization of BDT 5,136,979.000 million in 2021.

[159] Some of the largest companies listed on the DSE include:[160] The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to over 22 million as of 2022[update].

[163] This rapid population growth makes it difficult for the city government to provide the necessary infrastructure in a timely manner, e.g. for water supply, electricity and waste management.

[205] Public buses in Dhaka are primarily operated by numerous private companies, with a minority run by the state-owned Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC).

Dark Diamond by Shazia Omar in set in Mughal-era Dhaka during the reign of Shaista Khan, the Mughal viceroy and uncle of Emperor Aurangzeb.

Rickshaws are colourfully painted with floral patterns and depictions of birds, animals, movie stars, religious text, historical events and national heroes.

[249] Kacchi Biryani is highly popular in Bangladeshi cuisine, with food critic and former MasterChef Australia judge Matt Preston praising its use of potatoes.

[261] The Museum of Independence and its attached national monument were inspired by the "land-water mysticism of deltaic Bengal" and the "evocative expansiveness of a Roman forum or the geographical assemblage of an Egyptian mastaba sanctuary".

Many Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education alongside other subjects, which is imparted in Bengali and Arabic in schools, colleges and madrasas.

Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of numerous public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programs.