Savar () is a city in central

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, located in the

Dhaka District Dhaka District () is a Districts of Bangladesh, district in central Bangladesh, and is the densest district in the nation. It is a part of the Dhaka Division. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, rests on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River ...

in the division of Dhaka. It is the closest separate city to the centre of

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

. It is also a part of the

Greater Dhaka Greater Dhaka (''Bengali'': বৃহত্তর ঢাকা) is the Megalopolis including and surrounding the Bangladeshi capital city of Dhaka, which has grown into one of the world's largest megacities, and shows a very rapid rate of expans ...

conurbation which forms the Dhaka megacity. About 380,000 people live here which makes this city the second most populous in the district and the 13th largest in Bangladesh.

Geography

Savar city is located at in the central region of

Demographics

History

The origin of the name Savar is thought to be an evolved version of the ancient 7th–8th-century township of সর্বেশ্বর ''Shôrbeshshôr'' ("Lord of everything") or সম্ভার ''Shômbhar'' situated on the banks of the river known today as the Bangshi. Shôrbeshshôr, in turn, is said to have been established on the site of the ancient Sambagh Kingdom. Local legends as well as archaeological finds indicate a king by the name of Raja Harishchandra Pal, said to be of the

Pala dynasty The Pāla Empire was the empire ruled by the Pala dynasty, ("protector" in Sanskrit) a medieval Indian dynasty which ruled the kingdom of Gauda. The empire was founded with the election of Gopāla by the chiefs of Gauda in late eighth centu ...

, ruled over ''Shôrbeshshôr''. There is an old

shloka Shloka or śloka ( , from the root , Macdonell, Arthur A., ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', Appendix II, p. 232 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927).) in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is "any verse or stan ...

that goes বংশাবতী-পূর্বতীরে সর্বেশ্বর নগরী, বৈসে রাজা হরিশচন্দ্র জিনি সূরপুরী ''Bôngshaboti-purbotire shôrbeshshôr nôgori, boishe raja Horishchôndro jini shurpuri'' ("On the East banks of the Bangsabati is the city of Sharbeshvar, lives there King Harishchandra conquering Heaven"). In any case, local legend holds that the childless

Harishchandra Harishchandra () is a legendary king of the Solar dynasty, who appears in several legends in texts such as the ''Aitareya Brahmana'', ''Mahabharata'', the ''Markandeya Purana'', and the ''Devi-Bhagavata Purana, Devi Bhagavata Purana''. The most ...

was succeeded to the throne by his sister Rajeswari's son, Damodar. Damodar's reign started a decline for the kingdom, culminating in the reign of one of his descendants, king Ravan, a music enthusiast. During Ravan's reign, the

Koch Koch may refer to: People * Koch (surname), people with this surname * Koch dynasty, a dynasty in Assam and Bengal, north east India * Koch family * Koch people (or Koche), an ethnic group originally from the ancient Koch kingdom in north east In ...

invaded and sacked the capital established by

. However, inscriptions on an undated burnt brick fragment indicate king Mahendra in 869 CE dedicated a

matha A ''matha'' (; , ), also written as ''math'', ''muth'', ''mutth'', ''mutt'', or ''mut'', is a Sanskrit word that means 'institute or college', and it also refers to a monastery in Hinduism.

to his father, saint king Harishchandra, son of king Ranadhirasena, son of king Dhimantasena, son of king Bhimasena. The same inscription also states the Buddhist king Dhimantasena invaded and captured the land between the Bangshi and the

Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, and ...

and king Ranadhirasena extended the kingdom to the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

and fixed his residence in the city of Shômbhar. During the 1971 war,

Savar Cantonment Savar Cantonment () is a cantonment of the Bangladesh Army located in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The 9th Infantry Division of the Bangladesh Army is garrisoned there. The Corps of Military Police Centre & School (CMPC&S), Army Institute of Bus ...

(then Ansar Camp) and the then-newly founded

Jahangirnagar University Jahangirnagar University (, abbreviated as JU; initially started as Jahangirnagar Muslim University; ) is a fully residential public university, public research university located in Savar Upazila, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was established in ...

were some of the first targets of military swoop outside the capital following

Operation Searchlight Operation Searchlight was a military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army in an effort to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in former East Pakistan in March 1971. Pakistan retrospectively justified the operation on the basis of ant ...

of 25 March. In December of that year, Savar was the last obstacle before the freedom fighters (led by

Kader Siddiqui Abdul Kader Siddique is a Bangladeshi politician. He served as a Mukti Bahini commander, and organizer of the Bangladesh War of Independence. He fought with an estimated 17,000-strong guerrilla force in the Tangail region against the Pakistan A ...

and others) entered the capital, and the Pakistan army conceded defeat. Days before the end of the war, teenager Golam Dastagir Titu was killed in a direct encounter between the Pakistani Army and the freedom fighters. The compatriots buried him near the main gate of the Central Cattle Breeding & Dairy Farm, Savar. The Bangladeshi Army constructed a memorial monument in his honour. On 24 November 2012, a garment factory fire killed at least 112 people. The factory-made clothes for US and European companies were faulted for negligent safety standards.

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

, two of the companies who contracted work from this factory, refused to compensate victims. On 24 April 2013, a building in Savar collapsed, killing 1,129 people and injuring around 2,500. The building housed a garment factory that exported clothing to US and European companies. Eighty percent of the workers were women aged 18–20, paid $0.12-$0.26 per hour. In 2022, Savar had 113,559 households and a population of 384,105. 15.37% of the population were under 10 years of age. Savar had a sex ratio of 107.20 males per 100 females and a literacy rate of 86.00%.

Administration

Savar is governed by a

Paurashava Municipal corporations or municipalities (also known as pourasabha) () are the local governing bodies of cities and towns in Bangladesh. There are 330 such municipal corporations in eight divisions of Bangladesh. A municipal corporation serving a ...

named Savar municipality which consists of 9

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

and 56 mahallas, which occupies an area of .

References

{{Reflist Cities in Bangladesh Savar Upazila Populated places in Dhaka Division

Geography

Demographics

History

Administration

See also

References