Finding Bangladesh

“Celebrating Bangladesh Series”
the Steps towards our Existence: a brief Timeline
by Adnan M. S. Fakir

While moving around and chatting with many people for the “Celebrating Bangladesh Series,” (which has been pretty lifeless for a while) one of the main queries that I often resort to asking myself is about the history of Bangladesh; I am not talking about 1971, but beyond that… past 1947, past 1757 and even past 1576 to before Christ, and how Bangladesh gradually emerged from then. We have many such ancient relics in our exquisite country, and in order to comprehend them we need to be aware of our history. While as mundane as it may sound, it can also end up being appealing as many of our roots are engraved in this. Interestingly, our Bangladeshi blood most likely contains an assortment of not only Dravidian, Aryan, Turkish and Afghan blood, but also possibly Greek and Roman!

Bangladesh is pretty much a new state in an ancient land and many historians describe it as “a country challenged by contradictions.” Frankly speaking, till 1947 when India and (East and West) Pakistan was formed, Bangladesh never was a distinct geographical entity nor a well-defined historical unit, which explains quite well why its history is not usually studied. In fact, it was pretty damn hard finding even a relatively proper account of it. The Bangladesh “region” in the ancient period was an integral part of mighty empires in northern India, and that is exactly how the history unfolds. Below is a rough account with references to major related events and some relics from the Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions.

700 BC to 239 AD: Linking Buddha, Alexander and Asoka
A good point to start is probably at 700 BC, the approximate birth year of Mohasthangarh, the oldest historical site in Bangladesh. During that period, the Bangladesh region was roughly part of four kingdoms: the Pundra kingdom in the north, Vanga in the south, Rarh/Suhma in the east while the west was part of the great Magadha Empire, which also comprised of parts of India, Nepal and Pakistan. Mohasthangarh, located 13 km from Bogra, used to be the capital of the Pundra Kingdom.

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha was born in Kapilavastu of Kosala (present day Nepal), which was under the Magadha empire in 563 BD. Slowly, Magadha, under Nanda Dynasty, also included the rest of Bangladesh in its territory (except the Sundarbans) and it was during this period that Buddhism started to have its first impacts in the region, now Bangladesh. By 326 BC Alexander the Great had reached the borders of the Magadha Empire and also conquered a few of its principalities. As history depicts, Alexander turned back from the Indus Valley fearing a massive attack from Gangaridai and Prasii regions of the Magadha Empire along the bank of the Ganges. What is interesting about this is that Gangaridai has been identified as present day Bangladesh.

Mauryan Dynasty followed the Nanda Dynasty in 322 BC under Chandragupta Maurya and in 273 BC, Asoka the Great, a Mauryan king, extended the Magadha Empire territory to its maximum, fending off the troops that Alexander had left along the eastern borders. Although Asoka’s impact is more recognised in present day India, he did greatly shape the state of Buddhism in Bangladesh, the influence of which can be best seen in Mohasthangarh.

240 AD to 1201 AD: the Kama Sutra, Roman Trade & last independent Hindu Dynasty
Gupta Dynasty eventually succeeded the Mauryans in 240 AD, and the time was known as the Golden Age. While science & literature flourished during this period with several schools and institutions established, Gupta dynasty is also famous for its controversial founding of the Kama Sutra, which may also partly be the reason why it’s called the “Golden Age.” Ehmm! Anyways, trade with the Romans also initiated during the Gupta Dynasty and it is guessed that during this period the port city of Sonargaon, situated in present day Naryanganj, was also established.

Pal Dynasty followed the Golden Age in 750 AD and in 770 AD, the second king Dharmapal established Paharpur, a World Heritage site located in present day Naogaon of Rajshahi, the largest known Buddhist Monastery south of the Himalayas. In 1095 AD the Sen Dynasty took over which was the last independent Hindu Dynasty ruling over Bangladesh; notable structure of that period include the Dhakeswari temple, located southwest of Salimullah Hall of Dhaka University, which is currently the national temple of Dhaka.

1202 AD to 1575 AD: the Arrival of Islam - the Afghans & the Turks
Islam made its first appearance in Bengal on 1202 and Ibn Bakhtier Khilji, an Afghan, is lavishly credited for so in our famous poet Al Mahmud’s book “Bakhtiyarer Ghora.” In the book Al Mahmud cites and depicts that Bakhtier advanced so rapidly that only 18 horsemen from his army could keep up, and whence they had entered Bangladesh they were mistaken for horse traders, allowing them to surprise the then Raja Lakshman Sen. Bakhtier was however killed in 1208 and a Turkish Dynasty followed during which Sonargaon was brought under Muslim rule in 1277.

The Muslim rulers of Bengal are known as the Delhi Sultanates as most of them ruled the region from Delhi. Eventually the Afghan Suri Dynasty came into the front in 1540 AD during which the famous Ksumba Mosque, located in the Manda Upazila of Naogaon Distrct, was built. Isa Khan was also one of the last famous kings of the Suri Dynasty during which Sonargaon, the port city, was made the Bengal capital.

1576 AD onwards: the steps towards Bangladesh
It was in 1576 that Bangladesh (and the Suri Empire) was defeated and incorporated into the Mughal Dynasty. History from then on is pretty well kept and as before I will not get the details as those are huge chapters and this article is already getting kind of humdrum and vast. Nonetheless, several spectacular relics were constructed during this period including the structures at Puthia (1616 onwards), the Lalbagh Fort by Prince Md. Azam (1678 AD), Kantajee’s Temple by Raja Prannath (1752 AD), Ramshagor Dishi by Raja Ramnath (1755 AD) and so on.

Following the battle of Polashi in 1757 AD, the British Indian Company had officially taken over and we all know about 1947 when India and Pakistan had been separated following the progressed revolutions of Gandhi and Jinnah, which gave the first unique geographical shape to the Bangladesh. Relics from between this period include the Tara Masjid built by Mirza Golam Pir sometime along the 1850s, and Ahsan Manzil in 1872.

1971 (and a lot of other preceding events) followed, and the rest is pretty much recent history…

Timeline Download

A quintessential summary of Bangladesh’s timeline tracing our history back to 700 BC, linking the events and dates related to the historical sites covered in the film.

Download Timeline; Right Click and Save As (733 KB, .jpg image)