The Bongo Project

December 2019 was a roller coaster ride for The Bongo Project as well as Heritage Walk Dhaka. Organized a walk, trying to collaborate with others both in country and abroad! Attended EU's open heritage week, then talked with Indian organizers of our Indo-Bangla projects, had wonderful 31st Morning with Heritage Walk Calcutta over cups of coffee at Starbucks. At the beginning of this month (as well as year) we had a meeting with Indian Museum.

All is well.... Soon we will post our regular posts....stay with us :)

Happy New Year.

Tale of Two Cities
Recent order by government the two ancient cities, Bogra (Pundravardhana) and Chittagong (Tsit-ta-gung) will be now known as their Bengali accent Bogura and Chattogram. But this decision is purely political rather than necessity. These two names are derived from history and changing the names is a reflection how we are destroying our heritage with bureaucratic idiocy.

Bogra

It was a winter afternoon. We were sitting at a roadside tea stall and sipping on a cup of cold raw tea. The tea had unique feature, the taste- bitter, salty, sweet and spiced up with cardamom, clove and cinnamon. Oh, yes, we have a packet in our hand full of small bite size sweet snacks, Kotkoti- the local celebrity! After the day long visit to archaeological sites of Mahasthangarh, tea and kotkoti was our life saver. In Bogra, like other parts of country, tea-stalls are the places, where you can understand the scenario of the area. As outsiders, we, I and Rezwan Parag, my partner in crimes (traveling and digging up the history) were the center of interest on that tea stall and answering to the tea makers and small crowd- why politicians are doing this, what is the situation in the capital etc. Suddenly an old man from the crowd asked, if we know the final resting place of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah! It was surprising question for us. We both replied at the same time, NO!
Well let me give me an introduction to the character! Bengal was always known as Bulghakpur (The Rebellious Province) by Muslim chroniclers. Mahmud Shah assisted his father, Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban, to crush the rebellion of the governor of Lakhnauti, Tughral Tughan Khan. Then Mahmud was appointed the governor of Bengal with the title of Nasiruddin. He was the second son of the Delhi Sultan. After the death of his eldest brother Prince Muhammad in a war with Mongols in Kashmir, he was asked to take the throne of Delhi by Sultan Ghiyasuddin. But he was indulged in his Bengal governorship and refused the offer. Sultan Ghiyasuddin instead nominated Kaikhasrau, son of Prince Muhammad.
After the death of Delhi Sultan, Mahmud Shah declared independence in Bengal. In Delhi, Kaikhasrau was eliminated by elites of the Darbar and Qaiqabad, the son of Bengal Sultan seated on the Delhi throne as a mere puppet of elites of Delhi. But that inefficient ruling spread anarchy in Delhi. Mahmud Shah decided to bring an end to the anarchy in Delhi and advanced with a huge army towards Delhi. At the same time, Delhi elites forced Qaiqabad to advance with a massive army to confront his father. The two armies met in the banks of Saryu River. But the father and the son reached an understanding instead of facing a bloody battle. Qaiqabad acknowledged his father's independence from Delhi and also removed the elites from Delhi Darbar. Mahmud Shah returned to Lakhnauti.This epic meeting of father and son was well written by poet Hazrat Amir Khusrao in Qiran us Sadain. The assassination of Qaiqabad in 1289 shocked the Bengal Sultan. He left the power of Bengal for his other son, Rukunuddin Kaikaus in 1291.
Well, enough of history lesson. Written history knows nothing about what happened to the independent Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah after that. Nothing of his works is now traceable except the town he made near the ancient ruined town of Pundravardhana. The old man with mouthful of betel leaf, smiled with his blackish-red teeth, told us to follow him, if we want to see the tomb of the Sultan. He started walking, and we followed him. After a five minutes of walk from the tea stall, we reached near Govt. Azizul Haque College. He pointed towards a small room, with a dome of chini-tikri (broken ceramic tile) works on the top- `this is the grave of the Sultan of Bengal.’ It was neither attractive at all nor old structure. We shared our doubt with him. Then he started to tell us his part of history, ‘this place was abandoned even in 90’s, with few broken stone slabs scattered here and there with a mound looks like a grave. Just like the grave of Ghyiasuddin Azam Shah of Sonargaon,’ The man continued, ‘After leaving the throne of Bengal, he became a sufi saint and left his royal titles and names, just kept his nickname- Bughra Khan!’ Yes, we knew that Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah is the Bughra Khan, the founder of the modern Bogra town, but we were not convinced that inside the tomb he is buried. There were no archaeological signs or old relics to prove such. But this is true Bughra Khan made the town, and later the town named after him. And off course sudden disappearance of him from history helps to make people the legends and myths about him. When we were coming back from the shrine, we felt the words of Rumi-
On the day when you pass over my grave,
bring to mind this terror and confusion of mine;
Fill full of light that bottom of the tomb,
O eye and lamp of my light,
That in the tomb this patient body of mine
may prostrate to you in gratitude.

Chattogram

Chittagong, the land of earliest settlements of Bengal witnessed so many ups and downs, battles and off course earliest migrations of non-aryan races Australoids and Mongoloids. This southern part lured merchants and invaders since the known era of the written history. But what made the place famous? Yes, the seaport. This sea port lured merchants from Arab to Europe, and definitely neighboring states.
According to Rajoang (the chronicle of Arakan kings) and Shree Rajmala (the chronicle of Tripura kings) the Arakan king, Tsu-La-Taing- Tsandra, invaded Chittagong and defeated the local chieftain in 1953. In memory of this victory, he erected a monument with the words Tsit-ta-gung (there shall be no war) inscribed on it. It is said that this monument had been erected on the south of Kaunia Chhara near Kumira. But due to change of the river course, natural and human activities, we lost any remaining of this historical and archaeological evidence.
Again, few weeks later we went to the bank of the Karnaphuli River, which was the geographical boundary of Bengal and Arakan in 16th century. The small hills just opposite of Naval Academy, in Anwara- the Deyang hill, now most developed industrial area. This hill is the silent bystander of the history. In the golden era of Buddhism, Pandit Vihara was standing here. First Arab merchant convoy came here in 9th cenrury and in the beginning of 16th century Portuguese merchants made their marks. The Deyang massacre is one of the important incidents in the history of Arakan, where more than 600 Portuguese died in 1607. The central jail and a fort of Arakan were here and the famous medieval poet Syed Alaol was a prisoner here for few days before he made his fortune to as laureate in Arakan court. But thanks to industrialization and development! We destroyed the evidences by flattening the hills, creating EPZs and other factories. We have nothing but their influences in our ‘chatgaiya’ language and foods. The famous Kalabhuna Beef is a food invented by Muslim Navigators, Lau-Chingri, Balchao are from Portuguese.
Even there are very less archaeological sites according to Chittagong’s oldness. There are no signs of Andorkilla, the fort erected by sultans of Bengal or any kind of Portuguese activities. Medieval Hindu temples and Buddhist Viharas of the city area have faced the same fate.
Now days, in the name of development old structures are being destroyed all over the country. It is actually not about development or it has nothing to do with population boom. It is all about the good will to protect our heritage. It is all about being conscious; it is all about being aware of our heritage. Changing the old names of places will not bring back the lost archeological evidences, true, but still the names are carrying the history. Bughra Khan and the peace seeking king Tsu-La-Taing- Tsandra of 10th century will be forgotten soon due to changing the names of the places- Bogra to Bogura and Tsit-ta-gung> Chittagong to Chattogram.

Peerpukur Mosque
Baro Bazaar, Jhenidah

In 1978, local villagers accidentally discovered the remains of the mosque. The mosque was partly restored and repaired by the DoA, and it is now a protected monument. It can be understood from the ruins that it was a multi domed mosque contemporary with Khan Jahan Ali style mosques of Khalifatabad and located at historic Mohammadabad city, present day Barobazar, Jhenidah. Based on architectural style the date of construction can be projected to be late-fifteenth century.

The mosque has an oblong plan of approx. 75' x 50' externally and 60' x 35' internally. The structure was divided into seven equal interior bays and five rows, each grid was roofed over by a hemispherical dome. The eastern facade had seven arched entrances opening to a thirty-five grid prayer chamber. There were seven mihrabs, each aligned with the seven entrances at east and the central portion of the qibla wall was projected westward. Stylistically this kind is known as Khan Jahan Ali architecture, commonly found in and around south-western part of Bangladesh.

The rectangular structure was supported by four corner circular towers. Entrance arches were framed with rectangular shallow recesses. Both north and south facades had five arched opening used as entrances. The mosque was enclosed with massive brick walls while the interior was supported by twenty-four massive brick columns. The western wall had seven terracotta multi cusped arched mihrabs on the interior with the central one projected on the exterior.

Firoz Minar
Gaur, Malda, Bengal, India

One of the most striking of the ruins of Gaur is an elegantly designed circular tower, standing outside the citadel area about a mle to the south of the Bara Sona mosque. Generally known as Firoz minar, stands on the eastern side of the citadel adjacent to the Malda-Dinajpur road.

On 1787-88 book, Riyaz-us-Salatin records that Firuz Shah (Malik Andil), the slave Abyssinian king built a mosque, a tower and a reservoir in the city of gaur. Thomas Daniell drew a painting in 1795 of the tower when he traveled Gaur. The earliest European to notice the Firoz Minar was Mr. Reuben Burrow in 1787, stated, 'whenever a piece of stone has happened to cede, the most elegant buildings have been destroyed to get it out, that there is now scarcely a piece left, except a part in the 'round tower' which happens to have been preserved by the peculiar condition of the building. To this tower I deduced by observation the result of which was as follows-latitude of round tower at Gaur 24o 53' 0" N; longitude 5o 52' 13". The latitude was deduced from twenty nine meridian altitudes, and the longitude partly from distance and partly from watches.'

Henry Cerighton (1817) illustrates the beautiful edifice in question and describes it as both minaret and tower. Munshi Shyam Psarad (1810) calls it both pillar and watch tower. Writing another contemporary account of the ruins os Gaur, Francklin observes, 'this column was built by Feroz Shah, one of the Patan princes of Gaur, and in the style of its architecture resembles the column built by Feroz Shah, which are still to be seen at Allahabad and Delhi,...' Buchanan Hamilton refers to the Minar as 'pirasa', ehich is also supported by beveridge. F***y Park (1836) quotes one Chambers thus: 'Proceeding about a mile distant from the Great Golden mosque, there is a large obelisk which stands alone, completely separate from any other building. It is supposed to have been erected for an observatory or for the sake of calling the inhabitants to the regular performance of their daily devotions.'