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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[0] => Array
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[name] => Nagarpur Zamindar Bari
[post_id] => 7241
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/nagarpur-zamindar-bari/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Nagorpur-jomidar-Bari-021-300x225.jpg
[post_content] =>
Nagarpur Zamindar Bari (নাগরপুর জমিদার বাড়ী) is located at the Nagarpur Upazila of Tangail district. This place is located in an interesting area. It has river Dhaleswari at the eastern side, and the River Jamuna at the western side. It is believed that there were a naval route between the Kolkata and Nagarpur that time. Now the Zamindari system has vanished and it took that route along with that.
The Zamindari of Nagarpur was established during the 19th century by the Jodunath Chowdhury. It's right now a massive complex which is known as Choudhury Bari as well. They are very helpful towards the people of their area. One of the decedent from the family named Suresh Chandra Ray Choudhury was the founder secretary of the famous club East Bengal from this Sub-continent.
Most of the buildings from the complex are in ruin, and few are in good condition. Using those good ones the government has established Nagarpur Mohila Degree College. If you enter inside the dilapidated section of the complex, you can find a hideout for the bats. There are probably thousands of bats rest and start flying away after people’s presence, which create a sharp wind flow from the flapping of the wings of the bats.
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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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[name] => {:en}Boktnagar Zamindar Bari and Mosque{:}{:bn}বক্তনগর জমিদার বাড়ী ও মসজিদ{:}
[post_id] => 5541
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/boktnagar-zamindar-bari-and-mosque/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/boktonogor-jomidar-bari-bandura-11-300x225.jpg
[post_content] => {:en}
Beside the bank of the Ichhamoti river (ইছামতি নদী), you'll find an old house that is currently abandoned. No inscription was found about the house. From the architecture of the old house, you can only guess that it was a house of a wealthy man who could have been a Zamindar (জমিদার) or a rich merchant. Boktnogor/Boktonogor(বকতনগর/বক্তনগর) is a place located near the Shikari Para(শিকারী পারা) after Bandura bazaar(বান্দুরা বাজার).
This well-built edifice has lot of rooms inside. Front side of the house is still firm, but damaged at the back sides. Still now a days the house has a lot of open spaces around including ponds. At the south-west corner of the mansion, another edifice is available. This one is an old mosque. Again it is unsure about the builder of the mosque.
If the owner of the mosque and the house is the same person, then the owner must be a Muslim. The village name is Boktnagar (বক্তনগর) which should came from Bokht Nogor (বখত নগর). Possibly someone lived there named Bokht (বখত) and sounds a Muslim name, but all are predictions.
The mosque is a small one having three domes at the top. Middle one is a bit larger compare to other twos. Just above the main gate, and inscription is found written in Arabic. The mosque has a pond at the southern side and a graveyard at the eastern side.
{:}{:bn}
ইছামতি নদীর তীরে একটি পরিত্যাক্ত ভবন দেখতে পাবেন তবে কোন শিলালিপি না থাকায় এই ভবনটি সম্পর্কে বিস্তারিত জানা যায়নি। তবে, ভবনের স্থাপত্যশৈলী দেখে বোঝা যায় এটি ছিল একটি জমিদার বাড়ি। এই ভবনটির অভ্যন্তরে বেশকয়েকটি কক্ষ রয়েছে। জমিদারবাড়ির সামনের দিকটি এখনও মজবুত থাকলেও পেছনের দিকটি বেশ ক্ষতিগ্রস্থ হয়েছে।
এখনও ভবনটির চারপাশে একটি পুকুরসহ বেশকিছু খালি জায়গা রয়েছে। জমিদারবাড়ির দক্ষিন-পশ্চিম কোনায় একটি প্রাচীন মসজিদ রয়েছে। মসজিদটির নির্মাণের ব্যাপারেও কিছু জানা যায়নি। যদি জমিদারবাড়ি এবং মসজিদের মালিক একই ব্যাক্তি হয়ে থাকেন তবে ধরে নেওয়া যায় যে তিনি ছিলেন একজন মুসলিম। ধারনা করা হয়ে থাকে যে গ্রামতির নাম বক্তনগর হয়েছে বখতনগর শব্দ থেকে। এমনও হতে পারে যে, বখত নামক কোন মুসলিম ব্যাক্তির নামে গ্রামটির নামকরণ করা হয়েছে।
এখানে অবস্থিত মসজিদটি ছোট এবং তিনগম্বুজ বিশিষ্ট। তবে মাঝখানের গম্বুজটি অন্য দুটি গম্বুজের চেয়ে বড়। মসজিদের মূল প্রবেশ পথের উপরে আরবীতে লেখা শিলালিপি দেখা যায়। মসজিদের দক্ষিনে একটি পুকুর এবং পূর্বদিকে একটি কবরস্থান রয়েছে।
{:}
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[name] => Balia Zamindar House
[post_id] => 17418
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/balia-zamindar-house/
[thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Balia-Zamindar-House-5-300x200.jpg
[post_content] =>
Balia Zamindar House or Palace is once known as a symbol of dignity in this region. Still some of the ancestors of this zamindari estate living in Kolkata. Interviewing local folks ORB team came to about its identity and partial history, which could be possibly will help to rebuild its actual history in near future.
So far we came to know from different sources that, this zamindari was founded by man named Zamindar Malik Muhammad Box (জমিদার মালিক মুহাম্মদ বক্স) who came to this region from Multan. His son Hazi Malik Karim Box (হাজি মালিক করিম বক্স) was chronologically the second successful famous zamindar of this estate who donated a big amount of money from ‘Kashmir & Kyed-E-Azam relief fund’.
According to the old people of Balia this building is more than 400 Years old. There is a little difference between this Zamindar house with others. It’s one of the few Zamindari estate in Bangladesh which was being founded by Muslim zamindars where as rest of others being established by Hindu zamindars.
This old house is on the way to ruin, most of its building material is being removed. Except its tall dome and a triangular pediment rest others element is lost in course of time.There is a three domed Mosque in front this old House which could be possibly built in some later time.
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