Faridpur
Faridpur
district is situated in South Central Bangladesh. The district was named after Sheikh
Farīd al-Dīn Masʿūd
Ganj-i-Shakar or
popularly known as Baba Farid. He was very revered Sufi mystic of medieval
period .Interestingly he comes from Punjab (Pakistan) in Multan.
About
Sheikh Farid
Baba Farid
was born in 1188 CE and in 1266 CE. He was one of the founding fathers of the
Chsiti Order. He is a descendant of Hazrat Umar Bin al Khattab,second Caliph of
islam.. His education was under a teacher named Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiar
Kaki. Khawja Qutbuddin was from ancient city of Osh in Southern Krgystan.
Khawaja Qutbuddin took allegiance from the great Khawaja Muin Uddin Chisiti.
Also known as Khawaja Moinuddin
Chishti is a great sufi saint in the Indian sub-continent was from Sistan. This
is village in Iran. The Chisitiya order is one of the Sufi orders.
One his quotes:
Always find an excuse
to do something good.
According to the famous traveler Ibn Batuta, was
Spiritual guide of King of India. Among other cities, Faridkot is named after
him.
Location
Faridpur is a district in Dhaka division. It takes about
4-5 hours from Dhaka but recently the Padma Bridge has made journey within 3
hours. The only way of travelling is by car or bus. The previous name was
Fatehabad.
Faridpur has 9 upazillas.
Upazillas are administrative units and previously known as thana. It is also defined as sub
districts. Thanas are police stations since communication before to villages
was really poor. These were a means to located addresses in the countryside and
villages.
The 9 Upazilas are:
·
• Faridpur Sadar Upazila
·
• Boalmari Upazila
·
• Alfadanga Upazila
·
• Madhukhali Upazila
·
• Bhanga Upazila
·
• Nagarkanda Upazila
·
• Charbhadrasan Upazila
·
• Sadarpur Upazila
·
• Shaltha Upazila
The best being Golden Line owned by Karim Group, a
business started by Al Haj Abdul Karim Miah in the 1940s. The Karim Group owns:
·
Golden Line Bus
·
Krua Thai Restaurant
·
Yod Restaurant
And most of the good restaurants in hatirjheel. Yet they
do not have any waiting area for Golden Line bus passengers. This situation is
despicable since no waiting area in Gulistan at all. The government should make
a proper bus waiting area in Gabtoli and other areas.
Tickets to Faridpur can be booked by their website:
The payment is by Bkash app.
Zamindars
and Jagirdars
Zamindars were landowners appointed by the British with
lot of power. They were like Dukes of England with less land size and rights.
In short they were mangers for the British. They got tax from the common people
by any means. Even police could not interfere without permission in a
zamindaris areas.
The
eminent families and zamindars of Faridpur
·
The Chowdhury of Habi Ganj(Madaripur)
·
Basu Ras Viharai Of Madripur
·
Lakshimikol Family of Rajbari
·
Mazumdars of Pangsha
·
Ray Family of Manikdaha
·
Ray Chowduries Baishrashis
·
Nawab Abdul Latif of Boalmari
·
Nawara Zamidars(Gulando)
·
Nawab Family of Padami
·
Chowdhury Moyezuddin Biwshash
·
Kabiruddin Family
·
Sikhders of Kanaipur
·
Mias of Bhawal Mia Bari,Bhawal Union(which is
under Shaltha Upazila)
Faridpur is an interesting place and thing place and has
delicious foods as well as hospitality. This I found when I got married in
Faridpur. Just before the marriage I went for makeover in saloon called Craze in Gulshan. As I was having
facewash, my barber asked me about event. He was a young guy who was from
Faridpur too! I think somewhere in Bhanga. He praised the family I was going to
marry into, and I didn’t have clue. Having grown up in ME and lived for a short
time in Texas, USA. Bangladesh was last place to come and live. Well got used
it, but initially looking at ‘farm gate’, it felt like coming back 300 years in
the past to place which looked small. Yeah when you are walking blocks like
10-20, I mean you did this in Dhaka and you move to different parts of the
city. Nobody walked since rickshaw was the mode to travel and was cheap. Four
Bangladesh sized areas can fit in Texas. So you get an idea!
The Mias are supposed to be one of the prominent families
in Bangladesh and you them in many areas of Bangladesh. Whether they all are
related, I can’t say. The Bhawal Mia Bari are connected by family ties with the
Biswas family.
Here in this post we discuss two families of Faridpur:
·
Biwshash Family
·
Kabiruddin Family
Biwshash
family
Chowdhury Moyezuddin Biwshash was merchant
and Zamindar family. The family came as ‘warriors from Anatolia’, Turkey in
1200’s and joined the Mughal army. They had joined Turkish platoon in Uttar Pradesh
and were given govern ship. The 7th ancestor of Chowdhury Moyezuddin
Biwshash called Arafat Ali came to Faridpur (in 1600 CE) from Jaunpur, located
in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Src: Chowdhury
A A Quaseed in Facebook, titled: “The
Ancestry of the Family & Life Sketch of Chowdhury Moyezuddin Bishwash”:
He had three sons:
·
Chowdhury Abdullah Zaheruddin(alias ‘Lal Mia’)
·
Yusif Ali Chowdhury(alias ‘Mohan Mia’)
·
Enayet Hossain Chowdhury(alias ‘’Tara Mia’)
The sons were by his 2nd wife called Halima
Begum of Talma. Out the two powerful
landlord families of Faridpur, the Biwshas family was one of them. They were
involved in politics from time of Chowdhury Moezuddin Biwshwas.
The names of Mohan mia,Lal Mia and Tara Mia in Politics
was quite popular in East Pakistan times.
Zamindar Moyezuddin builds moyez manjil which looks
beautiful and piece of art.
The Moyez Manjil was built in 1885 with cost of 11 lakhs
of rupees. It was British India and currency as rupees.
Other palaces are:
·
Biswash Bari Palace
·
Chowdhury Bari Palace
·
Bishwash Bari II
·
Chanpur Estate
Interestingly Lal Mia married daughter of Syed Ahmad Ali:
Begum Sayeeda Khatun of Hooghly, West Bengal.
The places to visit in faridpur town:
·
Moyez
Manjil’’
·
Poet Jasimuddin’s House. The Poet was very
famous and known as “poli Kobi Jasimuddin”
·
Kaniapur Jamider Bari’ or Sikhder bari”
·
Baisrashi Jamider Bari
·
Gerda Saheb Para
Shrines:
·
Atrashi Bishaw Jaker Monjil
·
Dighir Par Masjid
·
Hazrat Shah Farid Mosque
Temples:
·
Basudeva Mandir
·
Monastery of Jajabandhu Sundar
·
Mathurapur Temple
Poetry of Poet Jasimuddin
O
father come let us go
To
the field to plough
Place
the ploughs on oxen shoulders and
Push,
push, push.
We
who bring out food
From
the depth of the earth
We
who provide food for the whole world
Why
can't we eat can any one tell us?
My
wife has hanged herself
She
could no longer bear hunger,
Now
I plough deep into soil
In
the hope of seeing her again.
We
plough the fields
Our
bosom is always flayed
But
from the fields we get harvest
None
from the sacred bosom. We shall plough no more for rice but to see how far it
is to graves.
Food
and Cuisine
The people of Faridpur are very hospitable and really
happy when relatives visit them at their homes. In addition the food are
delicious.
Some of the food are:
·
Pati
saptha pitha’’- A traditional Bengali sweet made of coconut wrapped with all-purpose flour.
Shape looks like a shwarma wrap except it is filled with milk and coconut. Here
is the recipe if
you want to make it home. There are variety of pitha and hence the name pitha
bread, I guess.
·
Sweets in General: Bagat Rajkumar
________________________________
Pr previously appeared in indicacollection.com
P
_
0 comments:
Post a Comment