Panam Nagar-a ruined city of Sonargaon

Panam City

Panam Nagar or Panam City is an earliest city of Sonargaon thana in Narayanganj district, about 2.5 kilometers to the north of Dhaka-Chittagong Highway at Mograpara Point. Panam is only 0.5km away from Sonargaon Folk Art Museum. It is seemed to have been the city of Hindu capital city of Sonargaon. Panam Nagar, the gorgeous structures was rising in the last quarter of the 13th century. After that Panam area formed part of Muslim city developed on the old city, and perhaps made up the place of residence of the early Muslim governors.
When the Mughal took over the control of Sonagaon, they constructed highways and bridges and made a new look of Sonagaon and Panam City. Mughal era was the most significant era for all the region of sub-continent. Panam city has no different for this circumstances. Huge amount of construction works and developments in the life of city dweller had been occurring in the time of Mughal.

Some works of Mughal period still visible at present. Three brick bridges belonging to the Mughal period are: Panam Bridge, Dalalpur Bridge, Panam Nagar Bridge. Panam Bridgeis to be found at a little further to the east of Habibpur on a brick made road between Companiganj and Bari-Majlish, in Sonargaon. The bridge, constructed over Pankhiraj canal on a village road from Hajiganj to Baidyerbazar, belongs to the Mughal period. It consists of three archways, the middle arch being wider and higher. The first one is the smaller one and the last one is greater than the first one. DalalpurBridge, also the symbol of Mughal structurecrosses the Pankhiraj Khal (canel) on the northern side of Panam Nagar in Sonagaon and connects Adampur and Dalalpur. It has also three archways. It may be the tradition of Mughal artifact that the middle arch was made wider and higher for the secure passageway of boats. The path is made of bricks set in rounded lines. The bridge angles downward sharply on either side. The last one is Panam Nagar Bridge. It is a tiny one vaulted overpass situated on the western side of Panam Nagar in Sonagaon.The Bridge, over a narrow channel, attaches Panam Nagar with the main road.

A group of Hindu talukdars chose this place as their residence. The existing brick buildings of Panamnagar were the residence of the Hindu merchant-talukdars. Panam Nagar which developed in the nineteenth century continued to prosper till the end of the Second World War. Panam Nagar, a unique township, Fifty two houses exist in on its last legs and abandoned condition having 31 in the north side of the street and 21 on the south. Panam Nagar appears to be well protected by artificial canals all around. Two fairly large canals run parallel to the street on its either part and connected by a narrow canal on the western side over which is the entrance bridge.

The building structures in Panam Nagar are both separated and joined types, typically rectangular in shape and extended in the north-south direction. Height of the buildings varies from single to three storied. According to building layout design the residence houses of Panam can be categorized into three basic types: central hall type, central courtyard type and consolidated type. Here you also find a large size of house having 204 rooms in it. It is a private property of Mr.Abdul Awal who brought this house from the inheritor of Jamidar Ram Mohan Poddar in 1971. Panam had overall been a Hindu populated area. The migration of the Hindus to India after the Indo-Pak War of 1965 and Muslim-Hindu riot has made Panam Nagar into a vacant community.