Brief
Carmichael College is a part of heritage and history of Uttar Bongo (northern Bangladesh). It is indeed one of the oldest colleges in the country.
Rangpur Carmichael College (রংপুর কারমাইকেল কলেজ) is one of the most prestigious colleges of northern Bangladesh. It has a campus of almost 300 acres and is possibly the largest in the country, in terms of its area. It was established in 1916, with the generous help of several landlords, including Gopal Lal Roy Bahadur, Mohima Ranjan Roy, Babu Monidra Chandra Roy, Radha Ballav Saha and others. It boasts a large lush green campus with several uniquely designed buildings.
The first three colleges of the country were named only after the district headquarters where they were located (Dhaka College, 1841, Chittagong College, 1869, & Rajshahi College, 1873). Similarly this new institution could have been named Rangpur College. However, several institutions that had been founded in the districts of Barisal (Brojo Mohan College, 1884), Sylhet (Murari Chand College, 1892), Pabna (Edward College, 1898), Comilla (Victoria College, 1899), Mymensingh (Ananda Mohan College, 1901) & Khulna (Braja Lal College, 1902) had taken names after their patrons. So when Lord Baron Thomas David Gibson-Carmichael of Skirling, the then First Governor of Bengal, formally inaugurated the institution, it naturally took up the name Rangpur Carmichael College.
From the outset, this was under the governance of Calcutta University, and was only permitted to teach Arts subjects, both at Higher Secondary and Graduation level. Lord Lytton, the Governor of Bengal visited the college in 1922. He was amazed at the beauty of the campus, the fascinating infrastructure, and the quality of education that was being offered here. He immediately permitted the college to begin teaching science subjects. The same year, Calcutta University also permitted the college to begin graduation courses in Bangla, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, English, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Economics & Mathematics. Bachelor of Science degrees were introduced in 1925.
The college currently offers graduation courses in 17 disciplines and post graduation courses in 15 subjects. From the 2011-12 academic year, the college reopened the Higher Secondary courses, having put that on hold for 14 years.
Rangpur Carmichael College was under the purview of Calcutta University till 1947, Dhaka University during 1947-1952, Rajshahi University during 1953-1992, and the National University thereafter.
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[name] => Panam Nagar
[post_id] => 11238
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Panam Nagar (পানাম নগর), ancient Painam, a locality now in Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj district. It is about 2.5 kilometre to the north of Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Mograpara point. It is said to have been the site of Hindu capital city of Sonargaon emerging in the seventh decade of the thirteenth century. The Panam area formed part of the Muslim metropolis developed on the south of the old city, and perhaps constituted the place of residence of the early Muslim governors'. After the Mughal conquest of Sonargaon (1611) the Panam area was connected with the ruling metropolis by construction of highways and bridges. Panam still possesses three brick bridges belonging to the Mughal period: Panam Bridge, Dalalpur Bridge and Panamnagar Bridge.
The existence of these bridges, and the canals enclosing the site on three sides is indicative of its being a suburban area of the medieval city. The pucca road which leads from the Mograpara crossing on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in the direction of Panam extending up to the Neel-Kuthi looks like a dividing line between medieval Sonargaon and the present Panamnagar, the only surviving relics of the Panam area. The Panam township stands on the east of this road opposite Aminpur, and a one-arched humped bridge leads from the same road over a narrow canal to the main street of Panamnagar.
In all probability the present Panamnagar grew as a by-product of the commercial activities of the english east india company and of the Permanent Settlement. The East India Company established their factory in Panam for the purchase of muslin and other cotton fabrics. The Company, for the purchase of muslin, used to distribute annually to the weavers from their factory in Panam as much as a lakh of rupees as dadni (dadni system advance), and it is estimated that there were then 1400 families of Hindu and Muslim weavers in and around Panam.
Sonargaon developed into a center of trade in cotton fabrics, chiefly English piece goods, during the colonial period, and thereby grew the new township of Panamnagar. A group of Hindu talukdars, who came into being from among the traders in the nineteenth century, chose this site for their residence. The existing brick buildings of Panamnagar, obviously the residence of the Hindu merchant-talukdars, can be dated back to early nineteenth, and the later ones to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Panamnagar which developed in the nineteenth century, continued to flourish till the end of the Second World War.
Panamnagar, a unique township, stretched in a single street 5 meter wide on the average and 600 meter in length. All the buildings have the character of urban street front houses and are lined up on either side of this street which ends up at the Panam bazar. Fifty-two houses exist in dilapidated and disused condition having 31 in the north side of the street and 21 on the south. Panamnagar appears to be well protected by artificial canals all around. Two fairly wide canals run parallel to the street on its either side and joined by a narrow canal on the western side over which is the entrance bridge (Panamnagar Bridge). On the eastern side, the canal on the south swerves rightward and goes eastward crossing the north-south road that passes through the Panam bazar. The northern canal, the Pankhiraj Khal, runs eastward to meet the Meghna-Menikhali stream.
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[name] => Tajmahal of Bengal
[post_id] => 11632
[post_link] => http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/banglar-tajmahal/
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[post_content] =>
Tajmahal of Bengal (বাংলার তাজমহল) is a scaled copy of the original Tajmahal (a Mughal mausoleum located in Agra, India) located 10 miles east of Sonargaon. Unlike the original, work on the building took only five years. Ahsanullah Moni, a wealthy Bangladeshi film-maker, announced his 'Copycat version of Tajmahal' project in December 2008. The project cost about USD$ 56 Million, and was built to the northeast of Capital Dhaka. This caused complaints from Indian officials that copying Historical Monument is Illegal. Founder explained that he built this replica of the Tajmahal so that the poor people of his nation can realize their dream of seeing neighboring India's famed monument.
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[name] => Shoshi Lodge ( Women Teachers Training College)
[post_id] => 22126
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Shoshi Lodge (শশী লজ) is located at the center of Mymensingh city which is also known as the Residential Palace of Moharaja Shoshi Kanto Acharya (মহারাজা শশীকান্ত আচার্য). This palace is very close to the river Brahmaputra which is being used as Women Teachers Training College from the year 1952.
According to the history, most of the rulers from Zamindar family have adopted babies in different era and those adopted child ruled the area later. For example Gourikanta(গৌরীকান্ত) was adopted by Roghunondon(রঘুনন্দন). Son of Gourikanta was Shashikanta(শশীকান্ত) and his wife adopted Surjokanta (সূর্য্যকান্ত) as she was childless. Later, Surjokanto became the prominent Zamindar of Mymensingh district. People used to call him as Moharaja(মহারাজা).
Moharaja Surjokanto Acharya was the Zamindar in Mymensingh region for long 41 years. During the reign of his Zamindari he did so many work for social welfare and made a remarkable change in infrastructural development.
He started to build an unique two storied building on an area of nine acre at the end of nineteenth century. Childless Zamindar Surjokanto named after this building in the name of his adopted son Shoshi Kanto Acharya. After completion of construction this building was extensively damaged by a destructive earth quake on the year 1897. Zamindar Surjokanto was immensely worried at this great loss.
Later Zamindar Shoshi Kanto Acharya re-built this building with many additional features in the year 1905 and did more renovation work in 1911. This unique classical architecture and its surrounding will certainly attract a traveler to explore this place recurrently.
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[name] => Nawabganj Ansar Camp (Painna Bari & Teli Bari)
[post_id] => 10248
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Nawabganj is one of the prominent regions in Dhaka containing a large number of old buildings and Zamindar Bari, Amongst the archaeologically or historically famous buildings the most well-known ones are Hasnabad Church, Braja Niketon,the Baghmara Moth, the Bakshanagar Church and the residence of Khelaram.
But there are also several lesser known old buildings, mostly set up by merchants lived that region previous years, who were traders of various kinds of produces, including salt.
Over time, many of these buildings have fallen prey to locally influential land grabbers. Most of these buildings are in a state of ruins, desperately requiring due attention. Some buildings have been acquired by the Ansar & Village Defense Party (VDP), a paramilitary force of the government, and the authorities have renovated some of these structures and maintain them fairly well.
It includes the House of Harihar Ghosh, the Ansar Commandant’s current office which is now known as Nawabganj Ansar Camp (Painna Bari & Teli Bari), Loknath Saha’s House and a few more houses.
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