Dasghara Village

The recorded history of Dasghara goes back much further, around 800 years.

A small village in Hooghly district about 65 km from Kolkata, Dasghara is a gram panchayat under the Dhaniakhali block, which is famous for its handloom jamdani saris. Historian Sudhirkumar Mitra, in his book Hooghly Jelar Itihas O Bangasamaj (1962), and Narendranath Bhattacharya, in his book Hugli Jelar Purakirti (1993), state that around seven thousand fifty years ago Dasghara was an important trading area in Bengal on the banks of the Bimala and Kananadi rivers, branches of the Damodar River. Since the fortunes of the town were tied to these rivers, the good times lasted till the Damodar River changed its course.

During this time, Dasghara was the capital of Baraduari Raja, about whom very little is known. The remains of a fortress, temples and a tank namely Bisalakshir pukur at a place known as Baraduari are contrary popular belief to their royal palace. When the Bimala and Kananadi rivers started to dry and their banks silted up, Baraduari Raja shifted his kingdom to Medinipur. Mitra says the name ‘Dasghara’ loosely applies to a collection (in Bengali ‘das’ means ‘ten’) of neighbouring villages, that is, Aglapur, Dighara, Gangeshnagar, Gopinagar, Ichapur, Jargram, Nalthoba, Parambo, Srikrishnapur and Srirampur.

The Biswas Estate

Dasghara became a prominent settlement in the early 18th century when Jagmohan Deb-Biswas settled at Dasghara at the instance of Ramnarayan Pal Chowdhury, a successor of the Baraduari Raj family. The father of Jagmohan Deb-Biswas was a close associate of Advaita Acharya, a senior contemporary of Sri Chaitanya. Sir Amiya Kumar Banerji, in his book ‘West Bengal District Gazetteers: Hooghly’ (1972), mentioned that “Jagmohan’s son Rammohan was a man of means and influence. His numerous acts of charity earned for him the leadership of the Dasghara society which pre-eminence was retained by his descendants for long.”