An ancient trading hub in the heart of Chalan Beel

“I lived in Krishnanagar for eleven and a half months of the year in my childhood and in Haripur for fifteen days. But we brought Haripur with us, along with its mental atmosphere.”

Pramatha Chaudhuri, one of the towering figures of Bengali literature and a pioneer of the colloquial style of prose, recalled his ancestral home in Haripur in these words in his autobiography.

On 9 September, as I entered Chatmohar upazila in Pabna, I caught what seemed like a real-life reflection of that fascination.

Pramatha Chaudhuri’s ancestral home stands not far from the market. The area was once one of the more prosperous zamindari estates in the region.

The splendour that captivated him and found its way into his writings may have faded somewhat with the passage of time, but the aura of its historic grandeur remains intact.

If one looks at a map of Pabna district, the settlement that stands out in the northwestern corner for its historical and economic significance is Chatmohar. Located along the edge of the greater Chalan Beel and on the banks of what was once the mighty Baral River, this place is more than an ordinary upazila.

It is almost a living museum of centuries of trade, literature and riverine civilisation. And at the very heart of this long history, Chatmohar’s ‘Old Market’ continues to thrive.

Large cargo launches and merchant sailing boats once anchored at the river port. Today, silt has accumulated in the river and brick-and-concrete buildings have risen along its banks. Yet the familiar bustle of Chatmohar Old Market, the calls of traders and the traces of the grandeur hidden in its century-old buildings have not disappeared.

The history of a settlement is often reflected in its name, which can reveal something about its economic past. Historical documents and accounts by archaeologists such as Alexander Cunningham indicate that the Chalan Beel region had been a developed settlement since ancient times.

Evidence of this has also emerged in recent years with the discovery of a black-stone Vishnu idol dating to the Gupta period. However, Chatmohar’s present commercial character began to take shape in the 15th century.

At the time, it was the largest river-based trading centre in the Chalan Beel region for rice, jute, khesari lentils, sesame and chillies. Traders came here from across Chalan Beel, an area crisscrossed by 54 rivers and waterways. But river piracy was rampant.

According to local lore and historians, buyers and sellers travelling from distant places would hide gold coins, or mohurs, in jute bags to protect them from robbers.

It is said that the practice of buying and selling mohurs in jute bags eventually gave the area its name, ‘Chatmohar’. A strong money-based economy existed here in the 15th century. The centre of that ancient trade is today’s Chatmohar Old Market.

The development of Chatmohar Old Market was largely driven by the local Tili or Kundu community, followers of the Sanatan Hindu faith. During British rule, the market served as a major trading centre for Natore, Pabna, Faridpur and Sirajganj.

Sitting in an old building in the market, a resident in his seventies recalled the past, “Even 50 years ago, we saw cargo launches coming up the Baral River. Large boats carrying 300 to 400 maunds of goods were built right here at this ghat before our eyes.

Wealthy Hindu traders lived in this area at the time. The room I am sitting in is around 300 years old. There were major traders such as Krishnadas Kundu, Satish Saha, Raghunath Kundu and Shirish Saha. They had huge businesses in bran, wheat, barley, Chinese millet and foxtail millet, much of which was transported directly to Chandpur by river.”

After Partition and amid various political changes, many members of the Hindu community migrated to India. Their absence was gradually filled by local Muslim and other traders.

The traders of this market did not merely accumulate wealth; they also spent it on public welfare. One of the clearest examples is the Chatmohar Charitable Dispensary Building, constructed in 1929. An examination of the inscription on the building offers a remarkable glimpse into the non-communal character of society at the time.

The building was constructed under the patronage of Pabna District Board chairman Maulvi Wasimuddin Ahmad Bahadur and vice-chairman AM Abdul Hamid.

However, the largest financial contribution came from the Kundu family of the Old Market. Around 15 businessmen from the family, including Girish Chandra Kundu, Rupendra Nath Kundu and Raghunath Kundu, as well as Kshitish Chandra Chowdhury, the zamindar of Haripur, donated money for the construction of the hospital.

Alongside the river-based economy, the construction of the Ishwardi–Sirajganj railway line in 1915–16 added a new dimension to Chatmohar’s economy. Chatmohar railway station directly connected the market with commercial centres across greater Bengal, including Calcutta.

Although the river is no longer navigable, the importance of the Old Market has not diminished because of its road and rail links. According to updated information from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and Chatmohar pourashava, around 2,000 trade licences have currently been issued in the pourashava.

Of the pourashava’s 1,525 shops, around 320 are located in the Old Market alone. It remains a major hub for both wholesale and retail goods.

The general secretary of the Chatmohar Old Market Traders’ Association spoke about the current state of the local economy.

“Once, the Baral River was the lifeblood of our market. When the Ershad government killed the river by constructing cross-dams across it in the 1980s, we were forced to change the way we did business. Instead of boats, we now depend on trucks and pickup vans.

However, the Old Market remains the largest trading centre for rice, jute and winter vegetables produced by farmers in Handial, Chaikola and Nimaichara, areas surrounding Chalan Beel. Recently, inflation and rising transport costs have affected the prices of essential goods. Even so, the market’s daily transactions amount to several crore taka.”

The current owner of Manmohan Mistanna Bhandar, a traditional sweets shop in the Old Market, said, “Our sweets are renowned across the country. Once, zamindars and wealthy merchants who came to this market were our main customers. Now it is the age of online shopping, and people place orders from Dhaka as well. But maintaining the tradition has become difficult because the prices of raw materials have risen.”

Abdur Rahman, a wholesaler of agricultural products in the same market, said, “Previously, we dealt mainly in rice and jute. Now farmers in Chatmohar are much more modern. Farmers such as Sharmin Khatun of Dibigram, known as ‘Malta Bhabi’, are cultivating high-value exotic fruits. Those fruits are now reaching our market, giving the rural economy a fresh boost.”

Chatmohar’s economic prosperity did not produce only brick-and-mortar buildings; it also gave rise to a rich tradition of art and literature. It was amid the bustle of the Old Market and the vastness of Chalan Beel that Pramatha Chaudhuri, known by his pen name Birbal, introduced the colloquial style into Bengali literature. His ancestral village, Haripur, is in Chatmohar. His literary magazine Sabuj Patra, which he edited from 1914, helped liberate Bengali literature from the Sanskrit-influenced formal prose style.

Chalan Beel also produced Principal MA Hamid, who wrote The History of Chalan Beel, leaving behind an invaluable record of the anthropological and sociological history of the region.

The Chatmohar Shahi Mosque, built during the Mughal period in 1581, is evidence of the importance attached to the settlement as a river port and trading centre, which helped explain the construction of such a large religious structure here.

The Baral River, which once gave life to the Old Market, is now nearly dead because of unplanned sluice gates and encroachment. There is, however, some hope. Following a grassroots movement to save the Baral, in which local residents and traders have participated spontaneously, the government has already taken steps to remove some of the dams.

Work is also under way to make the next generation more sensitive to nature by establishing the environmentally friendly Baral Vidyaniketan on the riverbank in Kumargara village.

Walking through the lanes of Chatmohar Old Market, one can still smell the earthy scent of jute and see the crumbling plaster of century-old buildings. One can also hear the bustle of hundreds of people earning their livelihoods.

Gold mohurs may no longer arrive in jute bags, but Chatmohar Old Market continues to hold its place as the unofficial economic emperor of Pabna district, sustained by the golden crops grown through the sweat of Chalan Beel’s farmers and the tireless efforts of its traders. If the river survives, the market will survive—and if the market survives, so too will the thousand-year-old glorious history of Chalan Beel.