Report on Panam City By Tahmid Ahmed The Baro Bhuiyan leader Isa Khan established the first capital of Bengal in Sonargaon, nearly 450 years ago, in the 15th century. The city consisted of a twenty square kilometre area of Sonargaon at that time. The city was built specially for the high ranked royal employees and the Muslin businessmen. During the medieval period Sonargaon was the old capital of Bengal. Different rulers used Sonargaon as their capital. As foreign cloth was imported through Meghna River (East) and Shitolokkha River (West) and Muslin was exported via waterway, some have called this the port city. Various antique and historical buildings which were built centuries ago still stand strong in Sonargaon and are related with the history of Baro-Bhuyan. Situated about 2.5 kilometres to the north of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Mograpara point, Panam City is one of the most popular tourist spots in Bangladesh. A busy city of once upon a time, is now only a part of history. There is no crowd for Moslin, no noise from traders. It's like the city is sleeping . The city seems to be lost for hundreds of years. Panam Nagar is also known as ‘The Lost City’. The city is almost in ruins. The World Monument Fund declared Panam Nagar as one of the 100 ruinous historical establishments in 2006.

Panam was used as a Hindu capital city in the late 13th century. 15th century ruler Jamidar Isa Khan first settled Panam Nagar as the capital of the area, though the area was popular even as far back as the 13th century. There existed three large settlements; Boro Nagar, Pash Nagar and Panam Nagar. Panam Nagar was and is the most popular of the three. Later, the city was conquered by the Mughals in 1610. They constructed many bridges and highways here. These are : ● Panam bridge ● Jabalpur bridge ● Panam Nagar bridge

In the nineteenth century British rule started in Bengal . At that time, it was developed as the center city of trade. It is said that about 1400 Hindu and Muslim families lived in and around the Panam. The Majority of the people were weavers from Marwaris, Bengali Hindus, and Muslims. Factories were built by the East India Company to buy muslin and many other cotton fabrics. Eventually some Hindu merchants came from Kolkata to Sonargaon in that colonial period who were wealthy and started a new township in Panam Nagar. The ornamentation of the buildings carried the value and prestige of the owners. Many offices, temples, and mosques were built in this town. The establishment continued from the beginning of the 19th century and ended in the early 20th century. Till the end of the Second World War, the development of Panam Nagar continued to flourish . The Panam city joins the 2500km historic Grand Trunk Road with it. Because of the 1947 division and Hindu Muslim riots , many Hindu merchants left panam City. But The migration of the Hindus to India after the Indo-Pak War of 1965 and Muslim-Hindu riot has made Panam Nagar into a vacant community. The Panam nagar is constructed along with Panam Street. The street is 60 miles in length and 5 miles in width. All the existing forty-nine buildings are standing on both sides of the road. There is a mixture of single, two and three stories buildings in the area. Around Fifty two houses exist on its last legs and abandoned condition having 31 on the north side of the street and 21 on the south.The city is well protected by artificial canals all around. Two large canals run parallel to the street on its either parts and are connected by a narrow canal on the western side over which is the entrance bridge. There are both types of building structures in Panam Nagar, separated and joined types, usually rectangular in shape and extended in the north-south direction. Height of the buildings usually vary from single to three stories. According to the building layouts and architectural designs, the residence houses of Panam can be categorized into three basic types:

● central hall type, ● central courtyard type and ● consolidated type. The site is surrounded by many big trees. There are enough spaces and benches where people can sit and gossip. The site is clean and tidy. The authority appointed three cleanliness people who are working to make the site well - oriented. Besides, there are enough trash baskets. The site is well secured. The whole site is covered by CCTV cameras. Besides Ansar Vdp and security men make the place more secured. Furthermore Bangladesh Tourists Police and local police's contact number are there in case of any emergency. There are few grocery shops out of the site. People can buy snacks from the shops. But no good restaurants are available there. Inside the site, few art and crafts shops are at hand.The financial situation of locals is on average. According to them , their condition was poor when they lived in it as a common place. But when the government announced it as one of the historical places and made it more attractive to the tourists their situation changed . As the site was well known for cotton and other businesses ,still business is the main profession of the local people . There are two primary schools and one high school and college situated beside the heritage site. Furthermore one government college was also established in Sonargaon. The behavior of the locals is very important to make the tourists comfortable and make the place more attractive. Local people are friendly and helpful. They always welcome the people with great warmth. They try their best to make the tourists easy going and they are well known about their behavior. They are very proud of being a part of this site.

All the forty-nine buildings are in different condition right now. Some are really dangerous for visitors to step in, some are completely intact while some others require repairing for the visitors to ensure safe tourism.Here are some weakness that emerges : ● Lack of facilities ● Safety issues of the buildings ● No interpretation signage ● The absence of a buffer zone ● No website Changes in designs of buildings, landscape and periphery of township is a continuous process. The architectural design of the buildings of Panamnagar, the mapping of the city, its landscape and surroundings are unique in nature that indicates that Bengal civilization started many years ago. Given that a historic city is a door to the past of a nation, it must be protected to know the past of the concerned nation. Panamnagar is the last surviving historic city of the lost glorious Bengal province.To protect the city’s cultural significance, the following step can be taken:

Identify the buffer zone The city is surrounded by water bodies which technically work as a buffer zone, but to protect the place from illegal encroachment of vendors, a buffer zone needs to be demarcated.The main entrance is used to sell tickets to visitors. But unfortunately, beyond these two controls, there are many illegal vendors occupying places inside the historic city.To keep the heritage site safe and sound, defining a proper buffer zone is the first and major step.

Identification and Documentation To protect and conserve the heritage site it is very important to identify and document every building properly and precisely. After documentation, it would be easier for the authority to take the decision how to conserve the structures. Each and every single building needs different attention.

Reasons and probable solution of building deterioration It is the basic requirement to understand the age of the building, its materials, construction techniques, design quality, and workmanship before considering any recommendation for protection, conservation, preservation, reconstruction, reuse, repair, and maintenance. Without having the proper knowledge any physical conservation policy may cause irreversible damage.Recommendations for conserving the Panamnagar city ● Feasibility study ● Policy formulation based on the analysis ● Awareness campaign to educate community ● Strict Government action & plan to save monuments, setting up of Archaeological departments ● Collecting, generation of funds & donation for their renovation ● Chemical treatments of monuments & restoration ● Taxes/donations to preserve monuments, monument fees and other related funds from citizens and tourists. ● Volunteering for their conservation

It is the basic requirement to understand the age of the building, its materials, construction techniques, design quality, and workmanship before considering any recommendation for protection, conservation, preservation, reconstruction, reuse, repair, and maintenance. Without having the proper knowledge any physical conservation policy may cause irreversible damage.Panamnagar has a very strong inspiration for the artistic and cultural response. In Bengal literature, stories, photographs, movies the place has been used as a beautiful symbol.The city is directly associated with the lifestyle of the richest merchants of Bengal in the 18th century. It carries the day to day life and the history of people who used to live there.The ancient city is very important to the local people as they believe it carries their identity. They believe people from all over the country know about this place because of the heritage city .Finally, given the historical as well as social and economic importance, the government of Bangladesh must take all necessary measures to conserve the Panamnagar heritage site for its new generations.