In an early winter evening, the sun is about to say the shimmery adieu for the day to those on the bank of the mighty Meghna. And you walk along the alleys of serenely silent Panam, trying to chat through your curious eyes with the architectural relics on both sides. They will slowly start engulfing you with their memoirs about witnessing time. A melting pot of architectural influences from the Mughal, the Sultanate and the European eras, but ardently crafted by local artisans and architects of the Bengal in their techniques, Panam City is a living specimen of the timeline.
The comeliest of Chinni-tikri ornamentations made of broken ceramics brought from the Dutch, the scroll-shaped Greek stuccos, cast iron railings first produced in the 19th century Britain, and those alluring arches that you can eye on every Mughal era structure – the list goes on. The city is not only a pristine example of architecture but also has a finely designed urban plan, especially in terms of its utilisation of water. There are two large canals, parts of the land are slightly slanted towards one of the canals for drainage, and the city also has five big ponds. If we look at the remains of the buildings, it is noticeable that there are open spaces inside each compound and a well for household water supply in the backyard.
Built almost five centuries ago by one of the legendary Baro Bhuiyas (12 Bhuiyas), Isa Khan, Panam City is the oldest capital of Bengal. Although it is one of the most popular tourist sites, many people still make the mistake of interchanging Sonargaon and Panam City. Whereas Sonargaon is a thousand years’ old, Panam is roughly 500 years of age. At the time, Sonargaon consisted of three cities: Boro Nagar, Khas Nagar and Panam Nagar.
History says Panam started gaining colossal importance with the gradual decline in the prominence of the then-port city of Sonargaon, which was one of the most important trading points in the world. Bengal was the fourth largest exporter of goods at the time, and a golden era of the finest Bengal Muslin was vastly being exported to Europe, and various foreign goods were imported. Sonargaon was one of the most sought-after places for international merchants at the time.
Later, with the arrival of the East India Company and the British sun gradually rising on the Bay of Bengal colonising the land, the plot drastically changed. The business didn’t stop at the site but it changed a lot with the British, making Panam a hub of their notorious indigo farming. As the demand for blue dye grew in the West for various usage purposes, so did the greed of the colonisers here for making more profit resulting in an ever more ill fate for the local indigo farmers. Although after a series of constant resistance later, the gruesome industry here gradually fell, the stains from the royal blue inked scars remained for a long time. Located 20 kilometers off the capital Dhaka, Sonargaon currently is an Upazila of the Narayanganj administrative district where Panam proudly rests. The remains of the beautifully built single to three-storied buildings on both sides of its roughly 600-meter-long main road, were mostly constructed from investments by the wealthiest local Hindu merchants and aristocrats of the time. The city containing multi-purpose buildings including places of worship, halls, guest houses for foreign merchants, libraries, and so on, was also a cultural hub with twinkling sounds of baijis (professional dancers) dancing in a courtyard full of guests consuming the finest of booze and tobacco, after the sunset.
It is said that the Sultan of Bengal, Giyasuddin Azam Shah once invited the world-famous Persian poet Hafiz, but he was unable to make the long trip due to his old age. Hafiz instead wrote a beautiful poem about the beautiful city he only knew through word of mouth and texts. After reading his poetry, many Persians made their trip to the city, only to be enchanted by its aura.
After a series of gruesome phases of riots, lootings of the site, and situations during the 1971 liberation war being the final nails in the coffin, the once-loved and bustling city was gradually being abandoned by its very dear residents. The buildings stayed like that, slowly rotting, welcoming new inhabitants outside human beings. For a time being many of them were being leased out by the government, followed by heavy protests from conservationists. In 2004 it was declared a protected site. Amongst the most significant buildings on the site, perhaps the most popular and notable one is the magnificent Baro Sardar Bari. Staying in a dying state for years without care, the once multi-purpose building, which still has hooks on certain ceilings inside, reminds us of how Muslin fabrics were hung. It recently went through a major painstaking restoration process as part of a conservation project funded by a Korean company in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
The remains are what in a comparatively well-state are 52 other structures as well. You can still walk on their marvelous checkered pattern floors of black, red and white marbles and mosaics with risks of plasters falling on your head from any of the walls above. But there are reasons to smile as part of the same conservation programme led by the Bangladeshi conservation architect, Dr. Abu Sayeed M Ahmed, the whole site will be gradually restored. Within a walking distance, in one of the restored old buildings, there is also a museum showcasing artifacts and the history of local handicraft practices. The museum, currently consisting of 10 galleries, was established by the legendary artist Zainul Abedin in 1975.
From a broader perspective, Panam is much more than just being pertinent to the discussion of being an eccentric tourist site fantasised by the mass and delving into a peculiar sense of pride in the name of heritage. Panam is also a hushed yet piercing testament about how the nature of the mass people in the sub-continent regarding religious harmony has evolved.
Written by Shahbaz Nahian
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