Bikrampur (lit. City of Courage) was a historic region and a sub-division 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 ...

within the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

during the period of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. Located along the banks of the

Padma River The Padma () is a major river in Bangladesh. It is the eastern and main distributary of the Ganges, flowing generally southeast for to its confluence with the Meghna River, near the Bay of Bengal. The city of Rajshahi is situated on the banks ...

(a major distributary of the

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

), it was a significant cultural and political centre in both ancient and medieval

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

. Today, the region is part of the Munshiganj District in

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 ...

History

Pala Era

The region was successively ruled by Vigrahapala I, Narayanapala, Rajyapala, Gopala II, Vigrahapala II, Mahipala, Naya Pala, Vigrahapala III, Mahipala II, Shurapala II, Ramapala, Kumarapala, Gopala III and Madanapala. Pala empire disintegrated in 1174 weakened by attacks of the rising Sena dynasty.

Chandra Era

During the rule of Srichandra (reigned 930 – 975 AD), the administrative centre of the Chandra kingdom was established at Bikrampur. The Varman Dynasty (1035-1150 CE) replaced the Chandras and established their independent kingdom.

Varman Era

After the fall of the Chandras, The Varman Dynasty became powerful in East Bengal. The Varmans claimed that they are descended from a branch of Yadava Dynasty of Simhapur. Jat Varman, Hari Varman Samala Varman were the most powerful rulers, who ruled in Bikrampur. Bhoja Varman was the last independent ruler of the Varman Dynasty who was defeated by Vijaysena of the Sena dynasty.

Sena Era

A copper-plate inscription from the time of the ruler Vijay Sen (ruled 1097–1160), founder of the Sen Dynasty, was found in Barrackpore, in 1911. In this inscription, Bikrampur was mentioned as the capital of that region.Proof of Bikrampur as the ancient capital of Bengal
, Golam Ashraf Khan Uzzal It continued to be the capital throughout the, Sena Dynasty. In 1205, Turkic invader Bakhtiyar Khalji defeated the then-ruler Lakshman Sen in Nadia. Lakshman fled to Bikrampur. His two sons Vishwarup Sen and Keshab Sen kept ruling from here until 1230. However the copper-plate inscriptions during their reign do not mention Bikrampur as the capital. Another Hindu ruler, Danuj Rai, defeated a successor of Keshab Sen and started ruling from here. In early 1280, he moved the capital to Suvarnagrama (later named

Sonargaon Sonargaon (; ; Literary translation, lit. ''Golden Hamlet (place), Hamlet'') is a historic city in central Bangladesh. It corresponds to the Sonargaon Upazila of Narayanganj District in Dhaka Division. Sonargaon is one of the old capitals of ...

Mughal Era

Mughal Emperor Akbar established Bikrampur as one of the 52 parganas of Sonargaon sarkar in the Bengal subah during his administrative reforms implemented between 1572–1580. During his time, Chand Rai and Kedar Rai were the Zamindars of Bikramapur. In the expeditions against Bara-Bhuiyans, Mughal Subahdar Man Singh killed Kedar Rai in the early 1600s. In post- Aurangzeb era, during the time of Nawab Murshid Quli Khan, Bikrampur was divided into eight

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ...

s – ''Bhagyakul'', '' Sreenagar'', ''Maijpara'', ''Sinhapara'', ''Taltala'', '' Sirajdikhan'', ''Louhajong'' and ''Baligaon''. Each taluk was represented by one zamindar. Muhammad Azim Khan became the Zamindar of Louhajong who held the title of "Khan Bahadur". Gobinda Prasad Roy became the Zamindar of Maijpara.

Notable people

* Fakhruddin Ahmed (born 1940) * Iajuddin Ahmed (1931–2012) * Atiśa ( CE) * Humayun Azad (1947–2004) * Bhanu Bandopadhyay (1920–1983) * Manik Bandopadhyay (19 May 1908 – 3 December 1956) * Pratima Bandopadhyay (1934–2004) * Atin Bandyopadhyay (1934–2019) * Kedareswar Banerjee (1900–1975) * Rameshwar Banerjee (8 February 1925 – 21 November 1945) * Benoy Basu (1908–1930) * Samaresh Basu (1924–1988) * Nripen Chakraborty (1905–2004) * Moushumi Chatterjee (born 26 April 1948) * Sabitri Chatterjee (born 22 February 1937) * Aghorenath Chattopadhyay * Nishikanta Chattopadhyay * Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty (1826–1874) * Brojen Das (1927–1998) * Chittaranjan Das (1870–1925) * Durga Mohan Das (1841–1897) * Narayan Debnath (1925-2022) * Dwarkanath Ganguly (1844–1898) * Suhasini Ganguly (1909–1965) * Kaliprosanna Ghosh (1843–1910) * Prafulla Chandra Ghosh (1891–1983) * Badal Gupta (1912–1930) * Dinesh Gupta (1911–1931) * Jogendranath Gupta (1883–1965) * Chashi Nazrul Islam (1941–2015) * Radhu Karmakar (1919–1993) * Adilur Rahman Khan, adviser for Housing and Public Works of Bangladesh * Muhammad Hamidullah Khan (1938–2011) * Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972) * Imdadul Haq Milan (born 1955) * Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay (1920–1989) *

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay (; born 2 November 1935) is a Bengali author from India. He has written stories for both adults and children. He is known for creating the relatively new fictional sleuths Barodacharan and Shabor Dasgupta. Life Shi ...

(born 1935) * Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) * Kedar Ray * Siddhartha Shankar Ray (1920–2010) * Mokshadacharan Samadhyayi * Laboni Sarkar * Asit Sen (1922–2001) * Soham Swami (1858–1918) * Sarada Ukil (1888–1940)

References

External links

Historical Bikrampur
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