Brief
Nawab Faizunnesa Choudhurani (1834–1903) was Zamindar of Homnabad-Pashchimgaon Estate in present-day Comilla District, Bangladesh. She is most famous for her campaign for female education and other social issues. In appreciation of her social work, in 1889 Queen Victoria awarded Faizunnesa the title of “Nawab”, making her the first female Nawab in South Asia.
Early life and background: Nawab Faizunnesa Chowdhurani was born in 1834 in the village of Pashchimgaon under Laksham in the district of Comilla. Her father was Ahmed Ali Chowdhury, a descendent of the Mughal emperors and zamindar of Homnabad-Pashchimgaon estate. Faizunnessa was raised in a conservative Muslim family, where the women would maintain a strict purdah system. She received no formal education but she educated herself in her library during leisure time. She was proficient in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Bengali language. In 1860, Faizunnesa was married to a distant cousin and neighboring Zamindar, Muhammad Gazi, becoming his second wife. But the couple became separated for an unknown reason and Faizunnesa began to live with her paternal family.
Career and philanthropy: After her mother’s death in 1883, Faizunnesa inherited her property and became Zamindar of Pashchimgaon. She became increasingly involved in social work after becoming Zamindar. In 1873, Faizunnesa Choudhurani established a high school for girls in Comilla, which is one of the earliest female schools privately established in Indian subcontinent, which is now called Nawab Faizunnesa Government Girls’ High School. She also founded a school at Pashchimgaon that was later upgraded to a college and now named as Nawab Faizunnesa Degree College.
In 1893, Faizunnesa established a charitable dispensary in her village for women in purdah, particularly destitute women. She also built a hospital for women, Faizunnesa Zenana Hospital in Comilla. In addition, she built mosques and contributed towards the development of roads and ponds. Faizunnesa patronized different newspapers and periodicals, including Bandhab, Dhaka Prakash, Musalman Bandhu, Sudhakar, and Islam Pracharak. Before her death in 1903 she donated her entire property to the nation.
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[name] => Pal Bari
[post_id] => 8538
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/pal-bari/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/PB-2-300x225.jpg
[post_content] =>
Pal Bari (পাল বাড়ি) is one of the renowned historical places in Munshiganj. According to the current inhabitants of the Pal House at Abdullahpur, Kamini Pal and Dwarkanath Pal, the eldest two sons of Tokani Prasad Pal, possibly one of the richest business persons of Bikrampur, established this house around the end of the 19th century.
They added a few more blocks to the house over the years, but lived within the compounds of their father's house, several miles away.
During the liberation war, many of their family members were brutally tortured and killed, prompting the entire clan to leave for Kolkata,India. A few years later Dwarkanath returned, to wind up his businesses here. Dwarkanath Pal, therefore chose to spend his last few years at this house. He decided to stay back in Munshiganj, but could not live in his own house. Many others had occupied most of that property.
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[name] => Horipur Boro Bari
[post_id] => 6569
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/horipur-boro-bari/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Horipur-Boro-Bari-Brahmanbaria-011-300x225.jpg
[post_content] =>
Horipur Boro Bari, also known as Horipur Zamindar Bari is a mammoth mansion that is located at the Horipur village of Nasirnagar Upazila of Brahmanbaria district. This is exactly adjacent to the bank of the river Titash. From outside it’s hard to get any essence of its antiquity and beauty. This is a capacious mansion having plenty of rooms at the both floor.
From the inscription from a Moth near the area it is found that the owner was Zamindar Krishna Prasad Ray Choudhury (জমিদার কৃষ্ণ প্রসাদ রায় চৌধুরী) who built that around 1343 of Bengali Calendar. At the front side it has a Ghat for taking bath (also may be for taking part in a family gossip during after noon).
Right now, the situation of the building is not good. This is now occupied by lot of poor families (Hindu people from their dress up and religious practice). Due to lack of care, most of the walls are decaying. It’s a two stored building and few portion of the second floor is risky. But still people are living at the ground floor.
The mammoth size, stylish architecture, etc simply implies that how sumptuous the owner was. Though most of the parts are diminished but still there is a portion of a Pasha Ghor exists at the second floor. Probably the owner used to play Pasha with his mates. May be it was a dance floor where the rich Baijee (Dictionary: Dancer) used to perform every night.
Since this is exactly beside the river Titash, lot of people use to visit here with a boat as a part of their picnic. As per the local, this type of picnic party uses to visit frequently during the weekends. And still people from Dhaka know very little about this place. You can explore the river after visiting this old Zamindar Bari. But you may not find any boat for hiring around there. Most of those are the private boats. May be you can request them to use for a while. Just about few hundreds meter apart from the building you'll find a cremation place which was built by the same owner.
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[name] => Alexander Castle
[post_id] => 21791
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/alexander-castle/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/P_20151013_170743_1_p-300x169.jpg
[post_content] =>
Alexander Castle is one of the most amazing and renowned structure in Mymensingh District. It was built by Maharaja Suryo Kanta Acharya Chowdhury(মহারাজ সুর্যকান্ত আচার্য চৌধুরী) in 1879 in the memory of the 1st zilla magistrate of Mymensingh Mr. N .S Alexander at the time of Jubili festival. It covers an area of 27.155 acres.
It is a nice small archaic building having two Greek statue at both sides of the front gate. Though the arms of those statues are currently broken, but still those looks great. The whole building is placed over a high plinth, probably to avoid the flood from the nearness river.
It cost 45000 taka at that time. Alexander Castle is a two storied building made by metals and woods in a high concrete base. This building was used as a rest house for the guests of Maharaja Maharaja Soshi Kanta Acharya Chowdhury. Many great personalities of the world stayed at this castle when visiting Mymensingh city. Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore arrived in Mymensingh around the midday of 15 February 1926. He stayed in the Alexander Castle as a guest for 4days. Mahatma Gandhi also stayed in this castle in 1926.
Lord carzon, Chittaranjan Das, Nawab Sir Salimullah, Kamal Pasha also visited Alexander Castle. This house was decorated by royal furnitures and items at that time. There is a big field in front of this house. You can see two fascinating silver statue which makes the place more beautiful. There is also a big garden and a pond still remains behind the castle. It is said that Maharaja used to keep big cats in his garden so he surrounded the garden with big still cages.At present this house is being used as library of teachers training college(male) in Mymensingh.
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[name] => {:en}Raja Shitaram Palace{:}{:bn}রাজা সীতারামের প্রাসাদ{:}
[post_id] => 1904
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/raja-shitaram-palace/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Broken-pillers-of-Raja-Sitaram-Roy-Palace1-300x225.jpg
[post_content] => {:en}
Raja Sitaram Ray (1658–1714) was a sovereign king. Raja Shitaram Palace has now almost been destroyed, but holds the history of many years in every corner of its building. He rebelled against the Mughal Empire and established a short-lived sovereign Hindu dominion in Bengal. In his early life he initiated Shaktism as he came from a Shakta family. He set up capital in Mohammadpur where the palace is located and established a Dashabhuja Temple there.
In course of time he became attracted to Vaishnavism and became a disciple of Krishna Vallabh Goswami of Murshidabad, who initiated belief in him. Sitaram established a pancharatna temple devoted to Hare Krishna in the village of Kanainagar to the west of the fort at Mohammadpur.
{:}{:bn}রাজা সীতারাম রায় ছিলেন একজন স্বাধীন রাজা। তিনি মুঘল রাজত্বের বিরুদ্ধে বিদ্রোহ করেন এবং বাংলায় একটি স্বল্পস্থায়ী হিন্দু অঞ্চল প্রতিষ্ঠা করেন। শাক্তা পরিবার থেকে আসায় তিনি জীবনের শুরুতে শক্তিবাদের প্রবর্তন করেন। মোহাম্মাদপুরে রাজধানী স্থাপন করে রাজা সীতারাম সেখানে দাশাভুজা মন্দির স্থাপন করেন। সময়ের সাথে সাথে রাজা সীতারাম বিষ্ণুবাদের প্রতি আকর্ষিত হন এবং মুর্শিদাবাদের কৃষ্ণ বল্লভ গোস্বামীর ভক্ত বনে যান যিনি রাজা সীতারামের মধ্যে বিশ্বাস স্থাপন করেন। মোহাম্মাদপুর দুর্গের পশ্চিমে কানাইনগর গ্রামে রাজা সীতারাম হরি কৃষ্ণকে উৎসর্গ করে একটি পঞ্চরত্ন মন্দির স্থাপন করেন।{:}
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