Raja Viratnagar

Type: Palace

Contributed By: Nayeem

Brief

Raja Viratnagar (রাজা বিরাটনগর) palace is the most valuable historical place of Gaibandha. Raja Virat and Panchopandob (পঞ্চপাণ্ডব) whose name are seen in the play Mahabharat. In 1960, Major Sherwill mentioned this as a “Brad Rajar Ghar”. Once upon a time, there was a huge fort in this place.

Great historian Rakhaldas Bondopaddhay (রাখালদাস বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়) published a report in 1925-26 where he mentioned five bronze sculptures and 4-5 mound which were discovered in during the year 1910. Raja Virat had a huge barns (গোশালা) and about 60000 cows were about. The two younger brother of Panchapandob, namely Nakul (নকুল) and Shodeb (সহদেব), had the responsibility to take care of that barns. For that reason, the word Gaibandha came from the word barns.

How to go

First you have to go to Gobindaganj and then hire a CNG for going to Shorgachi. Finally you can hire a van or rickshaw to reach the Biratnagar.

Dhaka and Gaibandha is linked by road. You can take a bus from Dhaka to reach Gaibandha district. Some of the bus services have been listed below for your assistance.

1. S R Travels,
Counters:
Gabtoli, contact: 02-8011226,
Kollanpur, contact: 02-8013793, 01711-394801,
Abdullahpur, contact: 0171944023,
Uttara, contact: 01552315318

2. Shah Fathe Ali,
Moakhali, Contact: 01193-221 085,
Uttara, Contact: 01193-221 084

3. Alhamra Travels,
Gabtoli, Contact: 88-02-9005612, 01721-802 031

4. Alhamra Paribahan,
Gabtoli, phone : 02-9005612, mobile : 01721802031

5. SR Travels
Gabtoli, contact: 02-8011226

There is one intercity train available that has one stoppage station at Gaibandha. Necessary information of the train service has been given below for your assistance:

1. Lalmoni Express:
Train operates every day except Fridays.
It may take 8 hours 17 minutes to reach the destination.

Where to Stay

There are some notable hotels In Gaibandha. Some of the hotel services have been listed below for your assistance:

1. Hotel Al-Saiful
Shahid Suhrawardy Road,
Moddhopara, Gaibandha.
Mobile: 01962-615415, 01764-990822, Phone: 0541-62090

2. Hotel R-Rahman
Shaheed Anwar Hossen Sarak, Gaibandha
Phone: 0541-61481, Mobile: 01713-270283, 01715464748

3. Hotel Rajmahal,
DB road, bus stand, Gaibandha
Mobile: 01737805563

Things to do

1. You may capture a lot of pictures of Viratnagar. It will obviously surprise you that how such a big area had been used for the governance.
2. You may be charmed the village area of Viratnagar.
3. Local foods items are very tasty to eat. So do not miss to take these food items such as puri, gorom misty etc.

Eating Facilities

Viratnagar is not very far away from Gobindaganj. Gobindaganj has a lot of restaurants with good facilities. Moreover, you may be attracted with local food items. Referred to where to eat in Gaibandha, click here

Map

Array ( [0] => Array ( [name] => Ghoshal Bari Zamindar Palace [post_id] => 11775 [post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/ghoshal-bari-zamindar-palace/ [thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IMG_20150527_135541718-300x169.jpg [post_content] =>

Ghoshal Bari Zamindar Palace, About 150 years old (now rebuilt) zamindar bari is located just nearby the Radha-Krisna temple with its outstanding view at Khilpara, South Betka village, Tongibari Upazila, Munshiganj District.

[This spot needs more information. If you have information, please be advised to add in our website. Your name will be published as a Content Contributor]

) [1] => Array ( [name] => Nawab Faizunnesa Chowdhurani and Nawab Bari [post_id] => 5531 [post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/nawab-faizunnesa-chowdhurani-and-nawab-bari/ [thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Choudhurani-Nawab-Faizunnesa11-201x300.jpg [post_content] =>

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.

) [2] => Array ( [name] => R N Saha House [post_id] => 10279 [post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/r-n-saha-house/ [thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/414-300x169.jpg [post_content] =>

R N Saha House is located at Nawabganj, which is now owned by a local businessman, under renovation. This house is situated just beside the river Isamati. The name of the house is named after a rich Merchant named Radha Nath Saha. It is believed that, this place will be turned into a tourist attractive spot very soon.

Sree Dulal Chandra Saha owned this palatial house, informed that the house was built in the middle of 1825 to 1850 at the time of Late Nagendra Chandra Saha (a Merchant).This house was built by Nabo Kumar Saha, father of Nagendra Kumar Saha. This family was a Merchant Family, Trading was their main business. They have established more business center in Kolkata, Madangonj, Barisal, Serpur and Murshidabad.

The merchants of this Palatial house once maintained family relation with many elite Zamindar familys of undivided India, i.e Baliaty, Nagarpur, Chadda rashi, Vaggo kul and Mr.R.P.Saha.

) [3] => Array ( [name] => {:en}Arpara Munshi Bari{:}{:bn}আড়পাড়া মুন্সীবাড়ি{:} [post_id] => 5967 [post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/arpara-munshi-bari/ [thumb_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Arpara-Munshi-Bari-Gopalganj-011-300x225.jpg [post_content] => {:en}

Arpara Munshi Bari (আড়পাড়া মুন্সীবাড়ী) is located near at Arpara (আড়পাড়া) of Gopalganj district. This is situated beside a man-made straight canal named 'Beel Route Canal'. This is mainly a two stored building and not that much older. But due to lack of care (and also the owner shifted to new place) it is a haunted house now a days.

The windows of this house are missing, doors are gone; trees have grown over this building and started covering it. You can hear lot of chirping sounds of birds; but it is actually a hideout for the bats. Thousands of bats you can see hanging upside down from the roof, and lot of them are flying randomly around and making the noise. It looked slight scary, but an amazing thing to watch.

Probably it’s around 50-60 years of old building and built by a rich family having family/surname Minshi (মুন্সী). They are still powerful, and prominent there by status and wealth. There are few other buildings available near this one and people are living there. Possibly they have shifted from here.

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আড়পাড়া মুন্সীবাড়ি গোপালগঞ্জ জেলার আড়পাড়ায় ‘বিল রুট ক্যানেল’ নামক খালের পাশে অবস্থিত। আড়পাড়া মুন্সীবাড়ি মূলত একটি দোতলা বাড়ি যেটি যত্নের অভাবে (বাড়িটির মালিকও অন্যত্র বাস করছে) বর্তমানে অনেকই জরাজীর্ণ অবস্থায় রয়েছে।

বাড়িটির দরজা জানালা খোয়া যাওয়ার পাশাপাশি এটির গায়ে গাছ গজিয়ে বর্তমানে বাড়িটিকে আবৃত করে ফেলছে। বাড়িটির অভ্যন্তরে কিচিরমিচির আওয়াজ শুনে পাখির উপস্থিতির কথা মনে হলেও প্রকৃতপক্ষে এটি বাদুড়দের সৃষ্ট আওয়াজ। হাজার হাজার বাদুড়ের বাড়িটির ছাদ থেকে ঝুলে থাকা এবং দ্রুতগতিতে ওড়ার সময় এসব বাদুড়ের সৃষ্ট আওয়াজ কিছুটা ভীতিকর হলেও আজকালকার দিনে এমন দৃশ্য চোখে পড়াও দুর্লভ বৈকি।

এই বাড়িটি প্রায় ৫০ বছর থেকে ৬০ বছর পুরাতন যেটি মুন্সী পরিবার নির্মাণ করেছিল। এই পরিবারটি স্থানীয়ভাবে এখনও মর্যাদাসম্পন্ন, বিত্তবান এবং প্রভাবশালি। এই ভবনে মুন্সী পরিবার আর বসবাস না করলেও আশেপাশের কিছু পুরাতন বাসাবাড়িতে এখনও মানুষজন বসবাস করে।

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