My Visit to a Place of Historical Interest
Historical place means a place which bears testimony to history. Bangladesh is a land of historical importance. Everywhere there are places of historical interest. Visiting a historical place is truly interesting and exciting. Visits to such places have a great educative value too. Besides, it helps us to remove the dullness of the mind which occurs from the monotonous classes. So, after the test examination is over, we visited Mahasthangarh, a place of historical interest.
On 20 October 2010, we started for our visit. We are four in number. On the appointed day, we all gathered at a pre-decided place named Gabtoli from where we went to Bogra by bus and stayed at night. The following day after breakfast we set out for Mahasthangarh. It was only a few kilometres away from the town. We went there by rickshaw. When we reached Mahasthangarh, a glorious chapter of old history opened up before our eyes. We all were enchanted seeing such a historical place with our own eyes.
Mahasthangarh was the site of Pundranagar. Pundranagar was the capital of the Mouryas, Guptas, Senas and other Hindu kings. The old city was about 2000 metres long and 1500 metres wide and was surrounded by a wall. Once it was a very flourishing city.
Mahasthangarh stands on the western bank of the river Korotoa. There are some elevated places near Mahasthangarh. These places are known as ‘Vitas’. ‘Kundus’, ‘Ghous’ and ‘Dhaps’. One part of the dried river is known as the ghat of Kankabati. There is a museum of Mahasthangarh. Some images, dice, ornaments and pots excavated from Mahasthangarh have been kept in the museum. We have seen all the relics of the past and learnt a lot of things about our past civilization.
We spent the day at Mahasthangarh and started back for Bogra in the evening. The following day after breakfast we set out for Dhaka.
A visit to a place of historical interest is always interesting to me. It was a great pleasure for me to be at Mahasthangarh. It was indeed a rewarding visit. It is still fresh in my memory.
Your visit to a place of historical interest
Man has an infinite thirst for knowledge. He always wants to know the unknown and see the unseen to satisfy his curiosity and quench this thirst. Visiting places is a wonderful experience and has lot of educative value. I am always fond of visiting a new place, particularly if it is a place of historical interest. I have visited most of the main historical places in Bangladesh like the Buddhist Vihara at Paharpur, Mahasthangarh at Bogra, Sonargaon and Bagerhat. last year I had an opportunity to visit the world famous Taj Mahal at Agra in India
There is hardly an educated person who has not heard or read about the Taj Mahal in India. In my higher secondary English textbook, I read description of it. I came to know that it is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It was built in the seventeenth century by Emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz mahal. I became very curious to visit this wonderful place and was looking for a chance to go there. In February last year some of my friends and I made a plan for touring India, specially to visit Agra.
It took us several days to complete our foreign tour formalities. We managed to procure passports and visas as quickly as possible.
Then we fixed a date for our journey. When the day arrived, we said good-bye to our parents and friends and started our journey to India via Benapal border. We caught a morning train from Rajshahi and got off at Jessore. Then we went to benapal by bus. We crossed the border at about 3 o’clock. We hired a taxi to go to Bonpara railway station. By the time reached Bonpar all the four of us got very hungry. We ate some food at a restaurant there and caught the Kolkata-bound train at 5 p.m. In Kolkata we put up in a small hotel for the night. As we had a long journey from Rajshahi to Kolkata, all of us had a sound sleep.
We spent the following day wandering here and there in Kolkata and visiting some important places. Next day we started for Delhi in the morning by train. The thirty-hour journey by train was extremely tiring but we somehow managed to keep ourselves fresh. After an overnight stay in New Delhi we started for Agra. The city of Agra is in Uttar Pradesh and to the southeast of New Delhi. From New Delhi it is five-hour journey by bus. We started our journey at 12 noon and reached there safe and sound at five in the evening.
The moment we reached the premises of the Taj Mahal, we were overwhelmed with joy and forgot all the exhaustion and hazards of the journey. We fell in love with the Taj at first sight. We felt that no words would be enough to describe its beauty. Immediately we understood why twenty thousand men worked for twenty-two years to complete the complex.
We saw that the mausoleum of pure white marble inlaid with semiprecious stones, is flanked by two red sandstone buildings, a mosque on one side and an identical building for aesthetic balance on the other. It stands on a high marble plinth with a minaret at each corner.
It has four identical facades, each with a massive central arch, and is surmounted by a bulbous double dome and four domed kiosks. Just inside the outer walls, there is a corridor and from this corridor we looked through the carved marble screens to a central arch, and is surmounted by a bulbous double dome and four domed kiosks.
Just inside the outer walls, there is a corridor and from this corridor we looked through the carved marble screens to a central room. ‘The bodies of Shah Jahan and his beloved wife lie in two graves below this room. No visitor is allowed to approach these original graves. There were thousands of people coming from different countries of the world to visit the Taj Mahal on that day and we also came to know that about eighty million people from all over the world visit the Taj Mahal every year.
We were really impressed by the matchless beauty of the Taj. It was as if a dream in marble. However, we were shocked to see one thing. The great mausoleum stands on the river Jamuna but there was no water in the river. The river rather looked drab and dry. We felt that the Taj Mahal would look many times more beautiful if the river were full of water.
We also visited the beautiful garden surrounding the Taj Mahal. The green trees of the garden made the white marble of the main building look even whiter. We also walked round the long pool in front of the main entrance to the building. When we looked in this pool in the evening twilight, we saw all the beauty of the Taj Mahal in the reflection in the water.
We could not resist our temptation to take photographs of all the beautiful scenes. We had read that Taj Mahal looks best at night in moonlight. Fortunately, it was the time of the full moon. Therefore, we waited until night and the rise of the moon. Our wait became significant when we observed the effect of the moonlight on the white marble of the Taj Mahal. The dazzling whiteness of the marble mingled with the soft whiteness of moonlight created a magic world.
We did not feel like leaving the site of the Taj Mahal which is known as one of the seven wonders of the world. But at one time we had to. We stayed overnight at Agra and made for New Delhi again the next morning with a sweet memory of visiting a wonderful place of great historical interest. Even today I feel proud to say that I have visited the Taj Mahal.
After visiting India in 2000 Bill Clinton said, “The world is divided into two parties those who have visited the Taj Mahal and those who have not. I am lucky I belong to the first party. “Before visiting the Taj Mahal I considered myself unfortunate to think that I was a member of the second party but today like Bill Clinton I can also proudly say that I belong to the first party of people who have visited the Taj Mahal. The memory of the Taj mahal will remain ever fresh in my mind.
