Brahmanbaria

About Brahmanbaria

Brahmanbaria is a flat, fertile district on the eastern side of the Meghna, across the river from the Dhaka region. Kishoreganj and Habiganj border it to the north, Cumilla to the south and Narsingdi and Narayanganj across the Meghna to the west, while its eastern edge is the international border with Tripura in India. Nine upazilas make up the district: Brahmanbaria Sadar, Ashuganj, Akhaura, Kasba, Nabinagar, Nasirnagar, Sarail, Bancharampur and Bijoynagar. With about 3.3 million people in 2022, it is densely settled even by Bangladeshi standards.

Water defines much of the landscape. The Titas river loops through the middle of the district before joining the Meghna, and in the monsoon the low northern areas around Nasirnagar and Sarail turn into broad sheets of water dotted with village islands, much like the haor country further north. Under the farmland sit some of the most important natural gas reserves in the country, and the Titas gas field, discovered in the 1960s, has long supplied fuel to Dhaka and much of eastern Bangladesh.

History

The name is usually explained as "the homestead of Brahmins", after priestly families who settled here in the medieval period. The area belonged to the ancient Samatata region and later to the Tripura kingdom, until the Bengal sultan Alauddin Husain Shah pushed east in the early sixteenth century. Sarail served as an early seat of Isa Khan, leader of the Baro-Bhuiyan chieftains who resisted the Mughals, and the region was later known for fine cotton cloth. Under British rule Brahmanbaria was a subdivision of Tippera (later Cumilla) district, and it became a separate district in 1984.

Brahmanbaria has produced a striking number of public figures and artists. Nawab Syed Shamsul Huda, the revolutionary Ullaskar Datta and language movement organiser Oli Ahad all came from here. In 1971 Sepoy Mostafa Kamal, one of the seven Bir Sreshtho, was killed defending a position at Daruin near Akhaura, where his grave now stands. Above all, the district is known for music: Ustad Alauddin Khan, the sarod master who taught Ravi Shankar, was born at Shibpur in Nabinagar, and his brother Ustad Ayet Ali Khan was also from the district. The novelist Adwaita Mallabarman, born among the fishing families of Gokarnaghat, wrote "Titas Ekti Nadir Naam" about life on the river.

Economy and livelihoods

Rice farming is the base of the rural economy, and the Meghna and Titas support a large fishing community. Energy is the district's other pillar: alongside the Titas and other gas fields, Ashuganj on the Meghna hosts one of the country's largest power station complexes and a urea fertiliser factory. Ashuganj is also the most important paddy trading centre in eastern Bangladesh, with boats bringing rice from the northern haor districts to its riverside market and dozens of rice mills nearby. Akhaura has the largest railway junction in the country and a land port facing Agartala, making cross-border trade with Tripura a steady source of work.

Food, culture and festivals

People in Brahmanbaria proudly call it the cultural capital of Bangladesh. Classical music training, folk forms such as jarigan, sarigan and kabigan, and theatre all have deep roots, and the memory of Alauddin Khan is kept alive by a music academy and annual events in his name. Boat races on the Titas still draw large crowds in the rainy season.

The district's best-known taste is chhanamukhi, small firm cubes of fresh chhana coated in a crust of dried sugar, a sweet associated almost entirely with Brahmanbaria town. Visitors also look for taler bora (palm-fruit fritters) and rasmalai, and the town's old sweet shops are a regular stop for people passing through on the Dhaka–Sylhet route. Sarail was historically noted for its hunting hounds, a slender local breed that appears in many accounts of the district.

Places to visit in Brahmanbaria

1. Arifail Mosque, Sarail

   A seventeenth-century mosque attributed to Shah Arif and dated to 1662, a protected monument in Sarail upazila. Nearby graves are traditionally linked to the family of Isa Khan.

2. Hatirpul, Sarail

   A Mughal-era brick bridge built around 1650 under the dewan Shahbaz Khan, said to have carried elephants and travellers along the old road towards Dhaka.

3. Haripur Bara Bari, Nasirnagar

   A large old zamindar mansion of the Haripur landlords on the bank of the Titas, now weathered but still impressive, and familiar to many from films and television dramas shot here.

4. Kal Bhairab Temple

   A Hindu temple in Brahmanbaria town known for its very tall image of Kal Bhairab, a form of Shiva, and a focus for local Hindu festivals.

5. Bir Sreshtho Mostafa Kamal's grave, Daruin

   The memorial and grave of the 1971 war hero at Daruin in Akhaura upazila, close to where he fell, maintained as a national memorial.

What Brahmanbaria is famous for

• Brahmanbaria chhanamukhi
• Taler bora (palm-fruit fritters)
• Rasmalai
• Rice from Ashuganj mills

How to get to Brahmanbaria

Brahmanbaria is one of the easiest districts to reach by train: most intercity services on the Dhaka–Chattogram and Dhaka–Sylhet lines stop at Brahmanbaria or Akhaura, and the journey from Kamalapur or Biman Bandar takes roughly two and a half to three hours. Buses leave Dhaka's Sayedabad terminal and run via Bhairab and the Meghna bridge at Ashuganj, also taking about three hours depending on traffic. The nearest airports are in Dhaka and Sylhet.

Markets and haats

Ashuganj paddy market (mokam)

A century-old riverside market at Ashuganj where boatloads of paddy from the haor districts are bought and sold every day, the busiest such market in eastern Bangladesh.

Akhaura bazaar and land port

A busy trading town on the border with Tripura, with a land port through which goods such as fish and building materials move to Agartala, and a bazaar serving the rail junction.

Brahmanbaria town sweet shops

The old shops around the town centre where chhanamukhi, rasmalai and other local sweets are made fresh daily and packed for travellers.

Brahmanbaria at a glance

Shops from Brahmanbaria on Midmart

No shop from Brahmanbaria is selling on Midmart yet.

Questions about Brahmanbaria

More districts in Chattogram Division

• Bandarban Cloud-wrapped hills, the Sangu river and the highest peaks in Bangladesh
• Chandpur The home of hilsa, where the Padma, Meghna and Dakatia meet
• Chattogram Port city, green hills and mezban: the commercial capital of Bangladesh
• Cumilla Mainamati's Buddhist ruins, khadi cloth and the rasmalai everyone asks for
• Cox's Bazar An unbroken sea beach, the Marine Drive, dried fish and salt fields
• Feni The gateway between Dhaka and Chattogram, home of Khandal's sweets
• Khagrachari Green hills on the Chengi river, Alutila cave and the road to Sajek
• Lakshmipur Soybean fields, coconut and betel nut groves on the Meghna estuary
• Noakhali New land from the Meghna: Hatiya, Nijhum Dwip and a famous dialect
• Rangamati Kaptai Lake, the hanging bridge and Sajek: the lake district of the hills