Pabna

About Pabna

Pabna sits in the angle where the Padma, flowing east, approaches its meeting with the Jamuna. Its southern edge faces Kushtia and Rajbari across the Padma, and the Jamuna forms part of its eastern boundary. Inland, the Baral, Ichamati, Atrai, Hurasagar and Chiknai rivers and the southern fringe of Chalan Beel make for low, fertile, often waterlogged country. That country produces some of the most important cash crops in Bangladesh.

The district has two very different faces. Ishwardi, in the west, is a railway and industrial town. It has a major rail junction, an export processing zone, national sugarcane and agricultural research stations and, at Rooppur, Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant. The east around Sujanagar, Santhia and Bera is farm and dairy country, famous for onions and milk. Pabna town, in between, is an old, cultured district seat with libraries, colleges and a long literary tradition.

History

Nobody is sure where the name comes from; local historians offer several competing explanations. Pabna has been a separate district since 1832, one of the older district seats in northern Bengal. In 1873 the Yusufshahi pargana, then in Pabna district, saw the Pabna peasant uprising. Tenants formed leagues to resist illegal rent rises by zamindars, a turning point that helped lead to the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885. The Hardinge Bridge across the Padma at Paksey opened in 1915 and was for decades the key rail link between North Bengal and Kolkata.

Pabna has produced an unusual number of well-known figures. They include the film star Suchitra Sen, the writer Pramatha Chaudhuri, the poet Bande Ali Mia and the fighter pilot Saiful Azam. The spiritual leader Sree Sree Thakur Anukulchandra was born at Himayetpur. Square Pharmaceuticals, one of the country's largest drug makers, began in Pabna in 1958.

Economy and livelihoods

Pabna grows around a third of Bangladesh's onions, mostly in Sujanagar, Santhia and Bera, and farmers store the harvest at home for months to catch better prices. Ishwardi is known as the litchi capital, with thousands of hectares of orchards that ship truckloads every day in May and June. The eastern char lands support large dairy herds, and Pabna ghee, cooked slowly from cream, is sought after nationwide. Handloom weaving of lungis, sarees and gamchhas continues in villages around the district town. Pharmaceuticals, the Ishwardi EPZ and the Rooppur power project bring industrial jobs.

Food, culture and festivals

Pabna has a strong reading and theatre culture. The Annada Gobinda Public Library dates from 1890, and the town's colleges and drama groups are old and active. Folk song forms such as jari, sari and dhua gaan, along with boat races and wrestling, belong to the river villages. Food lovers come for the ghee, the sweet shops of Pabna town and, in early summer, fresh litchis.

Places to visit in Pabna

1. Hardinge Bridge and Lalon Shah Bridge, Paksey

   The steel railway bridge of 1915 and the modern road bridge beside it span the Padma between Ishwardi and Kushtia. The riverbank at Paksey is a popular place to watch trains cross at sunset.

2. Jor Bangla Temple

   An eighteenth-century brick temple in Pabna town built in the "twin hut" (jor bangla) style, with richly carved terracotta panels on its facade.

3. Chatmohar Shahi Mosque

   A three-domed brick mosque from 1581, built in the time of Masum Khan Kabuli, the rebel Mughal commander. It is one of the oldest dated mosques in the region.

4. Suchitra Sen's ancestral home

   The house in Pabna town where the Bengali screen legend grew up has been preserved as a memorial and museum about her life and films.

5. Rooppur and the Padma at Ishwardi

   The nuclear power plant itself is a restricted site, but the Rooppur–Paksey stretch of the Padma, with its chars and old railway colonies, is worth a drive.

What Pabna is famous for

• Pabna ghee
• Pabna onions
• Ishwardi litchi
• Handloom lungi and gamchha

How to get to Pabna

Pabna town is roughly 160 km from Dhaka. The bus takes about 4 hours via the Jamuna Bridge and the Baghabari–Kashinathpur road, from Gabtoli, Kallyanpur and Mohakhali. By rail, Ishwardi Junction, about 25 km from Pabna town, is served by many intercity trains from Kamalapur and is one of the busiest junctions in the north-west. From there buses and CNG auto-rickshaws run to Pabna. The nearest regular airports are Rajshahi and Jashore.

Markets and haats

Sujanagar Haat

The hub of the country's top onion-growing upazila. In the season after the harvest, sacks of onions are bagged and loaded here for markets across Bangladesh.

Silimpur litchi market, Ishwardi

A wholesale market where truckloads of Bombai, China-3 and local litchi varieties are traded in May and June.

Bonogram Haat, Santhia

One of the biggest village markets in Pabna district. Farmers bring onions, other crops and livestock for sale.

Pabna at a glance

Shops from Pabna on Midmart

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Questions about Pabna

More districts in Rajshahi Division

• Bogura Ancient Pundranagar, sweet curd and the gateway to North Bengal
• Joypurhat Potatoes, arum stolons and the country's biggest sugar mill
• Naogaon Rice bowl of the Barind, home of Paharpur and Amrapali mangoes
• Natore Rani Bhabani's palaces, Chalan Beel and the sweet kacha golla
• Chapainawabganj Mango orchards, Gaur's sultanate mosques and the songs of gombhira
• Rajshahi Silk City on the Padma, famous for mangoes, temples and learning
• Sirajganj Handlooms, milk and the bridges over the Jamuna