Talk:Sonargaon
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An article from a Dacca, Bangladesh newspaper in 1976 spelling and grammer as appears in the article To the 17 miles north-east of Dacca the present capital of Bangladesh, lies the ancient city of Sonargaon, the once-capital of East Bengal. Its position on the confluence of the Meghna, Lakhya and Brahmaputra give it a stratgic importance and as such it grew into a port-city-cum-political capital of medieval East Bengal. Its area was about 48 miles north-south and 20 miles east-west. It was one of the best mint-towns of the independent Sultans of Bengal and many coins issued from that mint are available in the museums or with private collectors. This once-glorious-city which bustled with activities is now in complete ruins and gives the look of a hamlet dotted with t he rmains of its past grandeur. Prsently an all-weather metalled road is the only connecting link between these two past and present capitals.
After the conquest of Bengal in 1204 A.D. by the young dumpy Turkish cavalier Ikhtiaruddin Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji, the sultans of Delhi had ruled Bengal through their governors for a little over a century.But from 1338 A.D. down to the time of Akbar, the great Mughal emperor, Bengal appears to have been divided into two parts, the West and the East, with capitals in Gaur-Pandua and Sonargaon respectively.
The anciet history of Sonargaon or more correctly Suvarnagram with literally means 'gold-town' is not yet precisely known. The first definite reference to this city is found in the Tarikh-i-Firozshahi of Zia-ud-Din Barani who speaks of friendly relations between Rai Danuj of Sonargaon and Ghiyasuddin Balban, the Delhi Emperor, at the time of latter's pursuit of his rebel governor Mugh'suddin Tugh-ril in 1281 A.D. Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah. who established a separate kingdom in East Bengal in 1338 A.D. was whoever, the first independent ruler of Sonargaon. The importance of Sonargaon as a port city can be surmised form the fact that the famous Moorish world-trotter and adventurer Shaikh Badruddin Ibn-e-Bathuta of Tangier came to Sonargaon in about 1345 A.D. and it was here he embarked on a velsel that took him direct to java. From the witings of mahuan and a number of other Chinese travellers, who visited Sonargaon in the early 15th century, it is evident that it was a"a walled place with tanks streets bazars and which carriers on a business in all kinds of goods". and "all goods are collected here and distributed." In about 1586 A.D. Ralph fitch came to Sonargaon. According to him, "Sonargaon is a town six leagues from Sripur, where there is the best and finest cloth made of cotton that is in all India. The chief King of all those countries is called Isa Khan." Though the political importance of Sonargaon dwindled rapidly after the establishment of the Mughal capital at Dacca yet as a producer of the famous cotton fabric, the 'Muslin,' it held its field till the foreign competition completely ruiined its business. There are innumerable ruins of the past in the neighbourhood of the village now called Mograpara. About half a mile to the north of the main causeway leading from Narayanganj to Mograpara stands the Panch Peer Dargah. It is a collection of five small brick tombs in one line of a platform about four feet high. Nothing definite, however, is known about the persons buried here. They are generally known as the patron-saints of the boatmen of Bengal who, as a rule, still call out "allah, Nabi, Panch Pir Badr, Badr" when setting sail to ford a roaring river or when they face a squall. The most famous among these five Peers is Boro i.e. Badr A'am. It is just possible that these five persons laid down their lives to save the honour of their harths and home from the Arakanese Magh and Portuguese pirates.
About 1000 feet to the east of Panch Peer there is a fine massive black stone sarcophagus. the earliest known Muslim monument in Bangladesh which the people ascribe to Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azain Shah, son of Sikandar Shah of Bengal Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah revolted against his father and after inflicting a crushing defeat ascended the throne in 1390 A.D. He kept up a lively court at sonargaon where he died in 1410 A.D. and was buried at a place called Shahchillapur.
Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah who was a man of learning, composed a line of a couplet, in Persian but failed to complete it. So he sent his envoy to the immortal poet Hafiz of Shiraz in Persia with the request to complete the couplet and also invited the poet to pay a visit to his court at Sonargaon. But the poet could not accept the invitation in considering his old age and the ordeal of the sea-voyage and instead completed the couplet and sent to the Sultan one of his memorable poems on the romance of the Bengal Sultan's Court at Sonargaon. The tomb stands on the edge of a dried up tank. It is a box-tomb with a solid keeled top stone, origianlly surrounded by a pillared enclosure called Bara Dwari which is now lost to us. The east side of the tomb still retains three carved panels, each panel having ornamented niche.
About half a mile south-east from the tomb of Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah in the outskirts of Mograpara, a comparatively high spot is pointed out as Damdama probably a part of the original fortification of the town. In the centre of the village can be seen an open grave of Manna Shah Darvesh. At a short distance, on the north are the remains of the Khanqah of Shaikh Mohammad Yusuf, and the tombs of Hazrat Yusuf himself and his son Shaikh Mahmud. The tombs are rectangular in plan with plastered walls and the roots having Pyramidal Bengali dome which are of local variety. Nearby stands a single-domed square mosque which was originally built by Jalaluddin Fatah Shah in 1484 A.D. But the present building is a reconstruction of early 19th century. The inscription tablet, belonging to this mosque, is now fixed to a compound wall in front of the mosque. To the north of this mosque is an open ground which is pointed out to be the Khazanchi Khana or the Treasury. To its west are the remains of the residential buildings of the late Mughals.
There are many other graves in the neighbourhood like those of Ponkai Diwana, Pagla Sahib, of whom nothing historical is known. However, one notable monument is the Panam Bridge which lies further away from the town on way to Company ki Kothi.
In Goaldigan adjacent village to Mograpara stands the graceful but dilapidated one-domed mosque of Sultan Hussain Shah. It was constructed by one Mullah Hazbar Akbar Khan in 1519. The central dome was of some bluish stone and it had decorated stone door-frames, artistic Mihrab and pultin. It was indeed a beautiful specimen of Saracenic building art.
Although Sonargaon is no longer a bustling city nor does it have the charm it once had, it still attracts quite a good number of visitors every day from home and abroad.
