Bikrampur (Bengali: বিক্রমপুর Bikrômpur) pargana is situated 12 miles south of Dhaka, the modern-day capital of Bangladesh. It lies in the Munshiganj District of Bangladesh. It is a historic region in Bengal. The region is famous for its early Buddhist scholarships and in the later period for its cultural influences. It is known to be the oldest capital of Bengal since the Vedic Period until Bhawal and Sonargaon took over the title.
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It is believed that the name Bikrampur is derived from the word Vikramāditya (বিক্রমাদিত্য). Vikramāditya is a biblical king in Hindu religion. But several rulers including Chandragupta II, Dharmapal, Samrat Hemu also assumed the title Vikramāditya.[1] So it is not certain after whom the region is named. Vikram (বিক্রম) means "valour" and Pur (পুর) is a common sub-continental location name suffix.
Today there is no official recognition of Bikrampur area. People from an extensive region of the Munshiganj District claim as to be residents of Bikrampur. Roughly the town comprised the area with the river Padma on the west, the Dhaleswari on the north and east, and the confluence of the Arial Kha river and the Meghna River on the south.
According to a map from 1781, the river Kaliganga ran through the middle of the region creating the two parts - Uttara (North) Bikramapur and Daksina (South) Bikramapur. It stretched 30 to 40 miles from east to west and about 8 to 10 miles from north to south.
Bikrampur proper, referring to the town and historic urban center with historic antecedents and not the rural hinterland of Munshiganj is reportedly well on its way to being destroyed due to river erosion. It should be noted this is a common theme in Bengal historically due to the changing courses of rivers over time.
The second ruler of Pala Empire, Dharmapal, built a Buddhist monastery in Bikrampur during his reign in 770-810.[3]
During the rule of Srichandra (reigned 930 - 975 AD), the administrative centre of the Chandra kingdom was established at BIkrampur.[4]
A copper-plate inscription from the time of the ruler Vijay Sen (ruled 1097-1160), founder of Sen dynasty, was found in Barrackpore, India in 1911. In this inscription, Bikrampur was mentioned as the capital of that region.[1]. It continued to be the capital throughout the Sena Dynasty. In 1205, Turkic invader Bakhtiyar Khilji defeated the then-ruler Lakshman Sen in Nadia. Lakshman Sen fled to Bikrampur.[5] His two sons Vishwarup Sen and Keshab Sen kept ruling from here until 1230.[6] But the copper-plate inscriptions during their reign do not mention Bikramapur as the capital.[2] Another Hindu ruler, Danuj Rai, defeated a successor of Keshab Sen and started ruling from here. In early 1280 he moved the capital to Sonargaon.[7][2]
Emperor Akbar established Bikrampur as one of the 52 parganas of Sonargaon sarkar in Bengal subah during his administrative reforms in 1572-1580.[8] During his time, Chand Rai[9] and Kedar Rai[10] were the zamindars of Bikramapur.
In post Aurangzeb era, during the time of Nawab Murshid Quli Khan, Bikrampur was divided into eight taluks - Bhagyakul, Sreenagar, Maijpara, Sinhapara, Taltala, Sirajdikhan, Louhojong and Baligaon. Each taluk was represented by one zamindar. Gobinda Prasad Roy became the zamindar of Maijpara. [11]