Introduction
In the year 1874 Sylhet district was bifurcated from the then Bengal province and incorporated with newly formed province of Assam. The greatest Bengali poet of contemporary period Rabindranath Tagore wrote with a heavy and sad heart this stanza as mentioned below:
মমতাবিহীন কালস্রোতে
বাংলার রাষ্ট্রসীমা হতে
নির্বাসিতা তুমি, সুন্দরী শ্রীভূমি I
It was definitely from him Sylhet has got this beautiful name. Sylhet, our own Sylhet has obtained a permanent place near to the heart of all of us whose ancestors are hailed from this place; although most of the people of present generation have not seen the place. Sylhet is geographically situated at 24°30’N latitude and 91°40’E longitude having present area of 12,298.4 sq. km and language spoken is Bengali of Sylheti dialect as well standard Bengali. The literacy rate is 39.18%
Sylhet had five divisions before 1947 including karimganj subdivision which was incorporated with India during partition of the country and other four subdivisions viz Maulabibazar, Habiganj, Sunamganj and Sylhet was merged with the then newly formed East Pakistan.
No, I am here not to teach any geography of academic interest. I will tell our readers the untold facts of our Sylhet of yesteryears for that I bet all will feel goose bumps on your body. Your hair will be straightened with pride of our golden past.
Between 5th century to 14th century ACE
Historically Sylhet was called ‘Surma Valley’ the plain land of Gangetic Bengal which reached in its pinnacle for rich art, culture and economy. In the famous ‘Asthadhyaye’ of great Panini we get mention of ‘Surmos’ as a rich and famous place. Dr Basudev Agarwala, the renowned researcher also mentioned Surma Valley as ‘Surmos’. The rich history of Sylhet is found mainly on two copper plates namely ‘Khalimpur’ and ‘Gunaighar.’ It is widely believed that Sylhet and its adjoining areas were under the sea during ancient time. This has been referred by Sir W Hunter in his ‘statistical accounts of Assam’ which reads
Quote
The confirmation of some of the sandy hillocks and the presence of marine shells at the foot of the hills along the northern boundary, indicate that sea flowed at the base of the hills at a comparatively recent period.
Unquote
Even in 14th century AD large areas of Sylhet was submerged under water. It is believed that Famous Muslim Saint Hazarat Shah Jalal reached Sylhet or Gaud in the 14th century AD. It is said at that at that time nearly all the land from Sadarghat to Dinapur of present Habhiganj sub-division was under water. (Ref: Copper plates of Sylhet by K K Gupta)
Even in 18th century AD many large water lands were seen in Sylhet area. Mr. Lindsay came to Sylhet town as the resident of Sylhet during the rainy season and he had to go through a vast tract of water between Dhaka and Sylhet and mariner compass had to be used en route. (Ref: Copper plate of Sylhet by K K Gupta)
This Sylhet was referred as ‘Ganganica’ between the periods 5th century AD to 12th century AD when this area reached to great height with all respects. It was well connected through road and water to different places and countries. The presence of harbour was there and name of ‘Indeshwar’ river harbour is mentioned in many copper plates. Historians believe that Sylhet was an expanded commercial center since the ancient period, which explains its original namesake. During this time, Sylhet was probably inhabited by Indo-Aryan Brahmins, though ethnically the population would also include Mongoloids, Dravidians of Bengal, Arabs, Persians and Turks. It has also been suggested that the Ancient Kingdom of ‘Harikel’ was situated in modern Sylhet. Many ancient coins issued by king of Harikel have been found under the ruins in this area. There are reasons to believe that Sylhet area was economically very rich and the vast Gangaraid area had gold mine and gold coin in circulation. Anonymous writer has narrated a journey through Ganganica where he refers in his travelogue that Pearl, finest Muslins (those called genetic) available in this locality. It also mentions that there was gold mine and gold coin in use called ‘Caltis.’ In Nidhanpur copper plate a name of place referred as ‘Karnasubarna’ and in Kadambari of Banabhatta a place we find is named ‘Subarnapur’ Both the name has common word called ‘Subarna’ means golden and this is near to gold. (Ref: Classical accounts of India by R C Mazumder)
Durga and Srikrishna Chaitanya (Hindu past)
Sylhet is also proud to have global Shakti Peethas, holy places of cosmic and enormous power, where Goddess Durga is worshipped. Of the fifty-one body parts of Sati, one form of Durga that fell on Earth, Her neck fell on the south side of Surma River across the Sylhet town and her left palm fell in Jayanti. In addition, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the God of all Humanity and who will reappear during the kaliyug or end of time, visited his paternal family home in Thakur Bari, Dhakadakshin, Golapganj and his maternal family home in Joypur, Habiganj in Sylhet Division in the 16th century. Hindu temples, such as Shri Chaitanya Dev Mandir in Dhakadakshin, Kali Mandir of Jainpur, Narayan Shiva Mandir of Khasa Pundit Para of BeaniBazar, Sri Mahaprabhu Bigraha Akhra of Jaldhup in BeaniBazar, Shakti Piths temple of Kirit Devi Kamala, Bagala Matar Mandir of Habiganj, and Kalibari of Jaintiapur are popular.
Darga-e-ShahJalal.
A Muslim saint, Hazrat Shaikh al Mushaek Jalal Uddin, popularly known as Shah Jalal, arrived in Sylhet in 1303 AD from Mecca via Delhi, together with 360 companions and army generals such as Sikander Ghazi, Syed Nasiruddin and Khwaja Burhanuddin Qahafan, who defeated Govinda of Gaur. Sikander Ghazi was the nephew of Sultan Feroze Shah of Delhi. Under the spiritual leadership of Hazrat Shah Jalal and his 360 companions, the Muslims converted many local Hindus. He died in Sylhet in or around the year 1350 AD. His shrine is located inside the parameter of the mosque complex known as Darga-e-Shah Jalal.
Kadambari by Banabhatta
Kingdom of Harikel is believed to be lasted for a long period. During that period kings and nobles of this region tirelessly worked for development of religion, culture and economy of this area and as such they regularly donated land to learned and wise to establish their research works. It is also known that ‘Chandrapur’ that falls near to present Karimganj was an ideal institution for imparting knowledge and learning. This information is contained in different copper plates discovered from ruins and it tells us the episode of golden past of Sylhet. It is believed in one of them that Banabhatta of Kadambari fame lived in ancient Sylhet. Banabhatta lived in 7th century AD since the same person wrote the Harshacharita also and king Harshavardhan reigned from 608 AD to 647 AD.As per the copper plate found in Nidhanpur, there are reasons to believe that Banabhatta lived in a place called ‘Mayur Shalmal’ and as per Khalimpur copper plate this place is mentioned as ‘Mada Shalmali’ . In the epic ‘Kadambari’ itself the words and names of the places used are very much familiar with those places which existed in that area during Banabhatta’s time. The descriptions contained in the epic have astonishing similarity with places and signage of that particular time of that area.
In the book Kadambari itself the name of Chandrapur is referred many times.
ব্রম্হাপুরম্পবিকলোপ্য I ইত্ত্যেবং চতুসীমা পর্যন্তান শ্রীশ্রী চন্দ্রাপুরাভিধানং
এতস্মিনো শ্রীচন্দ্রপুরে I ব্রম্হনে I
I have said in previous paragraph that Chandrapur was an ideal institution for wisdom and learning. It seems that Banabhatta used the name of the place in his book such as the illustrious Chandrapur of Ganganica and ‘Uddumbarivishaya’. Another place the author named is the large waterbed near the Ashram of Yabali as ‘Himakar Sarashi ‘. Himakar again means ‘Chandra’. So, the river or water near Chandrapur might have been referred as Himakar Sarashi.
The river Ganges must have been near to the place Chandrapur that time because entire area was full of water and the entire area was named Ganganica or Gangaraid by Greek.
Moreover Betel leaf and Betel nut is common in Sylheti culture. In Kadambari chewing betel leaf is narrated many places. Like
“Her (Patralekha) thin lower lips were darken with the blackness imparted to it by their very much chewing the betel roll” (Ref: Kadambari Page 140). Again
“ He( Keyuraka) had a lower lip, soft like mango sprout and darkened by the colour of the betel, he chewed ceaselessly (ref: Kadambari Page-233)
We will now look at other kings who reigned in surrounding during contemporary period. To the west Magadh had its king Harshavardhan and Bhaskarvarman at Kamrup in the north. The copper plate of Nidhanpur contained the reign of Bhaskarvarman of Kamrup which has the similarity of language that is used in Kadambari. Interestingly this Sylhet region was originally inhabited by Dravids, Austic, Mon-Khems etc till 15th century AD. An interesting fact in this context, we should not forget that, Austic and Mon-khem language were widely spoken on those days in Sylhet and surrounding areas and as such the words and syllables of such languages might have been used in literatures of that time. Khasi tribe in Meghalaya believed to be the descendants of Mon Khems uses ‘U’ prefix for Masculine gender and ‘Ka’ for feminine. So, it is presumed that the word like ‘Vishaya’ was used for the word ‘district’ during those period and in one place referred in copper plate as ‘Uddumbarivishaya’ might be the conjuncture of Mon-khem and Sanskrit language as U+ dumburivishaya and later on changed into Ka+uddumbari and thus changed into Kadumbari and later on to Kadambari. There are many other reasons to support this theory those cannot be discussed at length here due to obvious reasons. (Ref: ‘Uttar Purba Bharater Longai Ababahika and Banabhatta Prachin Itihaser Bismoy by M Bhattacharjee) My request to our present generation that if they feel this part of discussion is not so interesting, they are only advised to feel proud that author of classic, Kadambari was none other than a Sylheti.
Banabhatta and Harshacharita
Banabhatta wrote his ‘Harshacharita’ at the ripe age. It is believed that he was called by Harshavardhan to visit his kingdom and it took him two days to reach there. Now, one question arises here that generally those days distances were gauged in term of ‘Yojan’ and one Yojan is approximately three miles. So, how could he reach to Magadh from Sylhet in two days when the communication for ordinary persons was only through river route? This point again opens a line for discussion. However, it is genuine that the Banabhatta wrote Harshacharita is one and same person who wrote the epic Kadambari.
Conclusion
Sylhet has produced innumerable worthy sons and daughters who have jointly or severally made our country proud. To name a few I will start with Hason Raja, Bipin Chandra Paul, Syed Mujtaba Ali, Dilwar Khan, Runa Laila, Hemanga Biswas etc and many noted singers and authors who have relocated after partition of the country. But, I am not here to discuss about all of them. I specifically concentrated on the great personality and epic author Banabhatta whose literary work is not much less than Kalidas and who has obtained a permanent place in the Indian literary all time giants. We all should feel proud to be descendant of such personality who was born in Sylhet. I will also like to quote Sri Manabendra Bhattacharjee to conclude
তোমার কুত্কুট প্রিতিকুট, শাল্মলী তলে, মান্দার সীমান্ত রেখা পুড়ে
সিঁদুর আগুনে I মাছ নেই, হাকে কুররা পাখি অর্জুন ডালে I ক্ষুধার আগুন -
ভাড়ার, ভরেনা বরো ধানে I শীর্ণ বুকে, মার চোখে আকন্দের রস ঝরে I ঘেটু
ভাটেরা চলে গেছে দূর বাদারে বনে I
পিতামহ! কাঁদে কাদম্বরী I এসে দেখো ঘরে I
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(I will pay my acknowledgement for writing this article to Sri Manabendra Bhattacharjee Late professor of department of Bengali Sankaradeva College Shillong and author of Bengali book ‘Uttar Purba Bharater Longai Ababahika and Banabhatta Prachin Itihaser Bismoy’ who is also a member of Bangiya Shahitta Parishad Shillong.)
Authored by: - dibakar purkayastha
For any information regarding this article please contact at dibakaranima@gmail.com
