What is "chandradwip"

The ancient and medieval name of Barishal was Chandradwip, or Chandradvipa. Now it is a small region in Barisal District, Bangladesh. The History of Chandradwip goes back to the Pre-Pala Period. This region was famous for its "paddy, rivers and canals". The presence of mighty rivers and canals prevented the Muslims from conquering this region. Chandradwip was successively ruled by the Mauryas, Guptas and the Palas. Towards the end of the 10th century A.D., the Chandra Dynasty gave this region a "distinct political identity." The Chandras were succeeded by the Deva Dynasty. After a brief period of confusion, the Deva Dynasty occupied this region and established their capital at Kachua. They were followed by the Basu and Mitra Mazumdar Family. During the rule of the latter, Chandradwip was sold out in an auction. Until the 18th century A.D., the Hindu rulers of Chandradwip were independent. After that this kingdom became a Zamindari, while greater part of Chandradwip was named Bakerganj after a Muslim adventurer, Bakar Khan.

Chandradwip was one of those Hindu Kingdoms which survived the Muslim Invasion and Conquest. It maintained its independence under the kayastha rulers. The prosperity of this kingdom reached its zenith during the time of Kandarpanarayan Rai. Many Chinese and European travellers left interesting accounts about this kingdom. The earliest Chinese accounts describe this region as " a famous place for the worship of the Hindu-Bauddha-Tantrik deity Tara" The Temple of Tara was situated near the sea-shore. It was visible from the sea. Chandragomin, the famous grammarian of the 6th century, wrote his hymns on Tara from this place. In a manuscript of 1015 A.D., the region of Chandradwip was mentioned with the Tara-Temple. It was there during the rule of the Chandra kings.

During the Mughal Period, this region came to be known as Bakla-Chandradwip. Later it was named Bakerganj. Neither the Delhi Sultans, nor the Mughals could conquer this region. The kingdom of Chandradwip maintained its independence for nearly 500 years and continued to give resistance to the Muslim invaders. The whole socio-cultural and political history of Chandradwip can be divided into five parts:-

1. From Time Immemorial to the End of Gupta Rule-
2. Under the Pala rulers and the worship of Tara-
3. The Chandra Rulers and After-
4. The kingdom of Chandradwip under the rule of Deva, Basu and Mitra Dynasties-
5. The Modern Period (From the 18th century to the 20th century) and the Revolutionary Activities-

The Banglapedia states that the Basu family of Chandradwip had died out and I don't know if this is commonly held belief or not. I am from a long line of Basu descendents of KandarpaNarayan. We are very much alive and well and we certainly have not died out. We broke Chandradwip up into smaller parts and sold it at auction in the early 19 th century to various people because we lost money building a tank to fight the British - mentioned in http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Chandradvipa. We still owned land in the region and kept large chunks of the kingdom broken up into zamindaris in the 19 th century - this is all detailed in the Bakerganj book written by the British administration in the 18th or 19th century when they surveyed the Bengal region for tax purposes (book is available on amazon). My own immediate family (my great grandfather) still owned land around and near Barisal and were based in Dehergati near Barisal - we were direct descendents and there were others of our Basu family who possibly also owned zamindaris in the region. We kept the zamindari until 1948 when we moved to West Bengal, India during Partition where we still live in Kolkata.

Interestingly we were also related to the Rajasthani Jaipur Rajputs who have some of the Chandradwip Basu kingdom artefacts and dieties in Amber Fort Jaipur. We are also mentioned in ancient South Indian scripts and we are related to South Indian dynasties descended from the Cholas.

Rabindranath Tagore wrote a famous literary book about the Basu Maharani of Chandradwip entitled BouThakuranir Haath.