Paragalpur is a historic village in

Zorwarganj Union Zorwarganj Union is a union, the smallest administrative body of Bangladesh, located in Mirsharai Upazila, Chittagong District, Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It i ...

Mirsharai Upazila Mirsharai Upazila ( bn, মীরসরাই) is an upazila of Chattogram District in Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. It consists 2 Thanas and 2 Pauroshavas. The two Thanas are Jorargonj Thana and Mirsharai Thana and, the two Pauroshavas are ...

Chittagong District Chittagong District, renamed the Chattogram District, is a district located in the south-eastern region of Bangladesh. It is a part of the Chattogram Division. The port city of Chattogram, which is the second largest city in Bangladesh, is ...

. The descendants of Paragal Khan still reside in the village.

Career

Paragalpur was the administrative center of the Chittagong region during the rule of

Alauddin Husain Shah Ala-ud-din Husain Shah ( bn, আলাউদ্দিন হোসেন শাহ (1494–1519)Majumdar, R.C. (ed.) (2006). ''The Delhi Sultanate'', Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, pp.215-20 was an independent late medieval Sultan of Bengal, who ...

and

Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah Nāsir ad-Dīn Naṣrat Shāh ( bn, নাসিরউদ্দীন নুসরত শাহ, fa, ناصر الدین نصرت شاه; r. 1519–1533), also known as Nusrat Shah, was the second Sultan of Bengal belonging to the Hussain Shahi ...

of the

Bengal Sultanate The Sultanate of Bengal ( Middle Bengali: শাহী বাঙ্গালা ''Shahī Baṅgala'', Classical Persian: ''Saltanat-e-Bangālah'') was an empire based in Bengal for much of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It was the dominan ...

. Alauddin appointed

Paragal Khan Paragal Khan ( bn, পরাগল খান) was an administrator and military commander (lashkar) of the Bengal Sultanate in the late 15th century and early 16th century. He served as the General of Alauddin Husain Shah. Early life Khan was born ...

as the head of the military and administration in Chittagong. Khan was based in Paragalpur. Khan with his son,

Chhuti Khan Nusrat Khan, ( fa, , bn, নুসরত খাঁন) better known as Chhuti Khan ( bn, ছুটি খাঁ), was a military commander of the Bengal Sultanate and Governor of Chittagong in the early 16th century. Early life Khan was born in ...

, developed a military garrison in Paragalpur. The site was chosen to defend the Bengal Sultanate's borders from

Twipra Kingdom The Twipra Kingdom (Sanskrit: Tripura, Anglicisation, Anglicized: Tippera) was one of the largest historical kingdoms of the Tripuri people in North East India, Northeast India. Geography The present political areas which were part of the Twi ...

in the East and pirates from the

Kingdom of Mrauk U The Kingdom of Mrauk-U ( Arakanese: မြောက်ဦး နေပြည်တော်,) was a kingdom that existed on the Arakan littoral from 1429 to 1785. Based out of the capital Mrauk-U, near the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, t ...

in the South. It was named Laskarpur (after laskar soldiers) before being renamed Paragalpur after Paragal Khan. The court of Paragal Khan was based in Paragalpur. The court poet, Kabindra Parameswar Das, wrote the first Bengali translation of the Mahabharata (from Sanskrit). Another court poet, Srikar Nandi, Mahabharata's Ashwamedh chapter. The court was cultural center of the region attracting poets and intellectuals.

Syed Sultan Syed Sultan ( bn, সৈয়দ সুলতান) was a medieval Bengali Muslim writer and epic poet. He is best known for his magnum opus, the ''Nabibangsha'', which was one of the first translations of the Qisas Al-Anbiya into the Bengali la ...

, noted medieval poet, was from Paragalpur.

References

{{coord, 22.873, 91.522, region:BD_type:city, display=title Villages in Chittagong District