& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

A mockery to the civilisation
THE ruined Balihar Rajbari is charring its age-old aristocracy and archeological value without any care at Balihar village in Mahadevpur upazila of Naogaon district. Most of the rooms of the palace have already been destroyed because of lack of proper maintenance.
Any visitor will be shocked at the very instant one looks at the ruined buildings of the palace through the huge iron gate. The condition of the two old temples as well as the Rajbari on the palace premises is utterly pitiful. The iron gate of the palace is still in quite good condition though.
However, the local Hindu community has been maintaining one of the temples on the premises on their own initiative.
It is learnt from an old gazetteer of Rajshahi district that the King of Balihar restored a mango grove and a big tank in 1887 to commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. He also dug a dighi and named it Kusum Dighika after the name of his wife Rani Kusum
Kamini Devi.
The gazetteer also mentioned that the founder of the Balihar Raj family was an aristocrat Brahmin
named Nrisinha Sanyal Chakravarti who came to Balihar village from Bikrampur pargana of Dhaka about 200 years ago. The
family had vast land property in Rajshahi, Bogra, Pabna and Natore.
A book titled Barindra Raja O
Zamindar narrates that the family established many public welfare organisations, including a charity health centre. Zamindar Kisidra
Roy Bahadur, himself a poet, set up a printing press which was called Shairdindu Press during his reign about 200 years ago.
A senior official of the Archaeology Department said although some buildings of the palace are still in good condition, the department is not properly protecting the Rajbari and other monuments of the adjacent areas. The government also does not have any immediate plan to protect the important archaeological site, he added.
Eye-catching design of the temples with terracotta decorations on one part is sure to attract visitors. Unfortunately, some of the terracotta plates have been stolen but the temples still bear evidence to its glorious past.
The remains of the neglected palace with its dilapidated walls seem a sheer mockery of the past glory.
Story and photo: MD. HASIBUR RAHMAN
BILU