Many
janapadas grew up along the old
Bhagirathi channel from the ancient times until around the 16th century:
Kalighat, Boral,
Rajpur,
Harinavi, Mahinagar,
Baruipur,
Baharu, Jaynagar, Majilpur,
Chhatrabhog etc.
Bipradas Pipilai's
Manasavijaya, composed in 1495, mentions many places in this region.
Chand Sadagar, a merchant character of the
Manasavijaya, reached Baruipur, from Kalighat, through the old Bhagirathi channel. From there he proceeded towards Chhatrabhog, and then traveling through Hatiagarh
pargana reached the open sea.
Chaitanyadeva (1486–1534) also went through this route. Travelling by boat to
Puri he halted at the village of Atisara, near Baruipur. His last stoppage in
24 Parganas was at Chhatrabhog. Chhatrabhog seems to have been an important river-port on the old Bhagirathi channel. Rama Chandra Khan, the
zamindar of Chhatrabhog, helped Chaitanyadeva to continue with his journey. To the west of the
Sealdah–Namkhana railway line lies Jaynagar, and to the east lies Majilpur. Jaynagar, predominantly inhabited by
Kayasthas, is ancient, whereas Majilpur, largely
Brahmin-dominated, is comparatively recent. While Jaynagar finds mention in the
Mangal-Kāvyas of the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries, Majilpur does not. At one time, the powerful stream of the
Adi Ganga flowed through the heart of both Jaynagar and Majilpur. Today this river is almost dead, and people have taken over its course and are maintaining it like ponds under names such as
Mitra Ganga,
Motilal Ganga,
Ghosh Ganga, and
Bose Ganga. Situated along the ancient course of the Adi Ganga and forming part of the
Sundarbans hinterland, this region was once covered with dense forests. In those days, ships of
Portuguese traders used to ply along the Adi Ganga and, near the village of
Andul, reached
Saptagram in present-day
Hooghly district via the channel now known as the
Sankrail Canal. In 1750, when
nawab Alivardi Khan diverted the main course of the
Ganges by cutting a canal near
Betor, carrying the waters through the dead channel of the
Saraswati River past
Budge Budge,
Falta and
Diamond Harbour to finally merge with the
Muri Ganga near the
Gangasagar, the death knell of the Adi Ganga began to sound. Coincidentally, foreign pirates—
Mog, Portuguese and
French—who arrived via this waterway often carried out looting and terror in Jaynagar and hid in the nearby forest-covered region of
Magrahat. Magrahat derives its name from these Mog pirates. However, most of the inhabitants of Jaynagar Majilpur came from outside: just as the
Motilals and the
Duttas migrated from
Jessore, the
Mitras came from
Barisha in
Behala. Moreover, due to the sanctity of the Adi Ganga and the presence of temples and cremation grounds along its banks, devout
Brahmins also settled here. The name of Jaynagar is first mentioned in the
Manasavijaya composed by Bipradas Pipilai. Towards the end of the tenth century, king Nilkantha Motilal of Jaynagar, as a feudatory ruler, governed a portion of the vast territory of king Subuddhi Ray’s
Raynagar kingdom, which extended from
Raimangal in the east to the Saraswati River in the west. In the early eleventh century, when the entire
Ganges Delta was submerged by massive floods, most of the
Raynagar kingdom became deserted. Even the clan deity of the
Motilal family,
Joychandi, was swept away. Soon after, when king Nilkantha Motilal lost his life in a war in
Magadha, his brother migrated with his family to Jessore. Several generations later, in the early sixteenth century, Gunananda Motilal, a worthy descendant of that lineage, was travelling by boat along the Adi Ganga for trade when evening fell and he anchored his barge on the riverbank. That night, in a dream, he was divinely informed that their lost clan deity,
Joychandi, was residing in the form of a stone on the riverbank in that region. Following the divine instruction, Gunananda entered the forest the next morning with guards. At that time, Jaynagar was covered with dense jungle. There, beneath a
bakul tree in the forest, he discovered the stone fragment of goddess
Joychandi. On seeing it, Gunananda decided to install a wooden idol of the goddess, carved from
bakul wood, and to establish a temple. He wished to personally supervise the work, but this was not possible from Jessore. Hence, he planned to build his own residence beside the temple and began living there with his family. He later brought Tunu Pandit and his family from Jessore to perform the daily worship of the goddess. Since then, the uninterrupted daily service and worship of goddess
Joychandi have continued to this day. Jaynagar derives its name from this very deity,
Joychandi. After the
Motilal lineage, the
Kayastha Sen family and the
Mitra lineage from Barisha settled here. The
Radhaballabh Temple and the
Dwadash Shiva Temples, established by the
Mitra family, still exist today. To the east of Jaynagar lies Majilpur. The place was formed on the silted bed of the Adi Ganga, hence the name Majilpur. In the early seventeenth century, when the
Mughal emperor
Akbar’s general
Man Singh attacked Jessore,
maharaja Pratapaditya’s
dewan, Chandraketu Dutta, moved to this forested island of the Sundarbans for self-preservation. Along with him came his family priest, Shri Krishna Udgata, and two Brahmins of the
Dakshinatya Vedic tradition—Raghunandan Pota and another. Through the efforts of the
Dutta,
Udgata and
Pota families, Majilpur gradually rose to prominence. In later times, the descendants of the
Udgatas adopted the surnames
Bhattacharya and
Brahmachari, while the descendants of the
Potas took the surname
Chakraborty. Even in the early eighteenth century, the flow of the Adi Ganga was still present here. The riverbanks were then densely forested and secluded. At that time, a
tantric practitioner named Swami Bhairavananda, finding the place ideal for meditation, began his spiritual practice here. After some time, he received a divine revelation in a dream that goddess
Kali lay neglected in the deep waters of the nearby
Padma Pukur. Upon searching, Swami Bhairavananda discovered an ancient black stone idol of goddess
Kali and installed it in a small hut he had built himself. Before leaving for another place to continue his spiritual pursuits, he entrusted the worship of the idol to his disciple Rajendralal Chakraborty, a descendant of the
Pota family. In the mid-eighteenth century, Rajendralal again received a divine command and, as instructed by the goddess, built a wooden idol and a temple for her using
neem wood lying beside the
Padma Pukur. Pleased with Rajendralal’s devotion, goddess
Kali bestowed upon him a divine medicine that could cure various incurable diseases. As the medicine worked like that of
Dhanwantari, the idol came to be known as
Dhanwantari Kali, and the temple was named
Dhanwantari Kalibari. Every year, in the month of
Boishakh, a grand fair lasting a fortnight is held centred on this
Kali idol. From
Shukla Pratipada to
Purnima, the goddess is presented in different forms each day. Since the goddess’s attire (
besh) is changed daily, the fair is popularly known as the
Besher Mela. Jaynagar Majilpur is not famous only for its
Moa sweets; it is also an eternally memorable place in history for its valour in India’s freedom struggle. It was the birthplace of many revolutionaries and martyrs and played an active role in the armed revolutionary movement. The renowned freedom fighter
Kanailal Bhattacharjee grew up in this historic city. Besides him, eminent personalities such as philosopher
Sivanath Shastri, doctor
Nilratan Sircar, poet
Shakti Chattopadhyay, musician
Hemant Kumar, and singer
Nirmala Mishra were all sons and daughters of this very land. ==Geography==