Visiting Puthia Rajbari

Hello dear travellers,

I am Promah. This is my first post in this community. I hope you will accept me as one of your own. Here is my verification.

When I travel to historical places, I always remember the poem 'Ozymandias' by Shelly—

"on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."Source

The mighty kings or rulers wear the crown and one day go down on the history pages. Human history is full of such examples. Today I will share my travelling experience to one of such historical places.

I was living in Rajshahi City of Bangladesh, a few years ago. Near the city is a place called Puthia, under the jurisdiction of the Rajshahi Division. I decided to go to the 'Puthia Rajbari' or Palace of Puthia' with my sister and brother one fine morning.

One can easily visit the place by bus or train from Rajshahi city, which is only 32 kilometres away. But we siblings decided to have some fun on our way. So we took a three-wheeled pedal van. For the past few years, these vans in Bangladesh have had motors attached to them. So, it did not take too long for us to reach.

The Palace was beautiful to look at from the outside. It has a long history which started in the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar. Vatsacharya was awarded the zamindari of Puthia area by Akbar's subedar Mansingh after Vatsacharya helped Mansingh in a battle with Lashkar Khan, who previously reigned Puthia area.

Vatsacharya’s son Nilambar got the title of Raja or king, from Emperor Jahangir. A few generations passed, and Jathindranarayan inherited the Zamindari. He married Homanthakumari Devi, who became a widow only at 15. Homanthakumari admired her mother-in-law, Maharani Saratsundari, who got the title of "Queen" or "Maharani" in 1877 for her philanthropy, that Homanthakumari built the splendid Palace of Puthia to honour her.

The history of these two strong ladies at that age impressed me when I learned about them during my visit.
Homanthakumari also got the title of Queen and later Empress from British Government. This long history of power and reign ended when the people awakened against the Zamindari system and revolted all over the country. The mighty Puthia Zamindari disappeared eventually.

There was also a famous mosque, which can be seen from the palace. We did not go to the mosque as it is relatively new. But we took photos with it while standing in front of the Palace.

We went inside the building and walked along the corridor. We could not enter the rooms and the backyard of the Palace as those are prohibited areas for safety reasons.

Around the Palace, there are various other interesting archaeological structures. We saw a few old buildings like that. Then we saw a beautiful tank in which there was a brick structure. We sat there for quite a long time and savoured the beauty. We clicked photos with our low-resolution phone cameras to keep some memories of it.

Then a local person said we should see the temples. So we went to visit Govinda Mandir. It is a Hindu temple. There is terracotta outside the temple's wall, and people still worship there. The place seemed so peaceful and calm that we spent some time there.

After that, we visited Boro Shiva Mandir, another temple beside an enormous lake called Shivasagar. It has arched doors and many terracottas on the wall. It is a fine example of architecture.

There were more temples and places to see. But the day was coming to an end and we had to be back at home. So, we took a bus from Puthia to Rajshahi. It was such a wonderful visit that I still remember it occasionally.

Thank you for reading my post. I hope my fellow Steemians will visit the place someday.

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Photo Description

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Smart Phone	Symphony
Camera	8 megapixel

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