Tajhat Palace, Indo-Saracenic palace and museum in Rangpur District, Bangladesh

Tajhat Palace is a two-storey building facing east, about 76 metres wide, with a central projecting porch and a ribbed conical dome on a tall octagonal neck. A broad staircase of imported white marble rises above the porch, and a balustrade runs along the roofline. The ground floor has an arcade of round-headed arches, and the palace is laid out in a U shape around a large hall.

Maharaja Kumar Gopal Lal Roy, a goldsmith by trade, built the palace at the start of the 20th century; construction took about ten years. The estate is said to take its name from his jewelled crown, or taj. From 1984 to 1991 the building housed a branch of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, and in 1995 it was declared a protected monument.

The name Tajhat comes from the jewelled crown, or taj, of Maharaja Kumar Gopal Lal Roy, a goldsmith by trade. The museum on the upper floor holds 10th–11th century terracotta artefacts, Sanskrit and Arabic manuscripts including copies of the Mahabharat, Ramayan and a Quran attributed to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, and black stone carvings of Vishnu.

The palace is located a short drive from Rangpur city and can be reached by car without difficulty. Visitors should note that exhibition spaces operate on specific schedules and photography is restricted in certain areas.

A rear staircase, now closed for safety reasons, is said by local tradition to connect to a tunnel running to the Ghaghat River. The palace fountain, built specially for the queen, still shows traces of its white marble and greenish patterns despite fading.