Brahmaputra River - History

History

Early accounts give its name as Dyardanes. A question in connection with the river system of Mymensingh is when and why the Brahmaputra changed its main channel. It is not improbable that in prehistoric times it flowed directly south more or less along its present main channel. From ancient times up to the end of the eighteenth century it flowed past Jamalpur to Mymensingh and Egarasindur. The river practically stretched from Jamalpur to Sherour, 7 or 8 miles as the crow flies, and the present river Shiri was a part of it. As to its course through Dhaka from Egarasindur, there is some uncertainty.

It may be that the old geographers made mistakes and the fact was that it did not join the Meghna at Bhairab Blzar but struck off a mile below Egarasindur at Aralia to Lakhipur and then flowed in a south-westerly direction past Nangalband and Panchamighat to Rampal, joining the Meghna at Rajbari. The dried up bed between Aralia and Lakhiour is wrongly shown as the Lakshya in the revenue maps. This river branches off from the Brahmaputra at Lakhipur.

In the past the course of the lower Brahmaputra was different and passed through the Jamalpur and Mymensingh districts. In a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on April 2, 1762, the main channel of the Brahmaputra at Bhahadurabad point was switched southwards and opened as Jamuna due to the result of tectonic uplift of the Madhupur tract.

It has usually been assumed that the change in the course of the main waters of the Brahmaputra took place suddenly in 1787, the year of the heavy flooding of the river Tista. It is, however, well known that the Tista has always been a wandering river, sometimes joining the Ganges, sometimes being shifted westwards by the superior strength of that river and forced to join the Brahmaputra.

In the middle of the eighteenth century there were at least three fair-sized streams flowing between the Rajshahi and Dhaka Divisions, viz., the Daokoba, a branch of the Tista, the Monash or Konai, and the Salangi. The Lahajang and the Elengjany were also important rivers. In Renault's time, the Brahmaputra as a first step towards securing a more direct course to the sea by leaving the Mahdupur Jungle to the east began to send a considerable volume of water down the Jinai or Jabuna from Jamalpur into the Monash and Salangi. These rivers gradually coalesced and kept shifting to the west till they met the Daokoba, which was showing an equally rapid tendency to cut towards the east. The junction of these rivers gave the Brahmaputra a course worthy of her immense power, and the rivers to right and left silted up. In Renault's Altas they very much resemble the rivers of Jessore, which dried up after the hundred mouthed Ganges had cut her new channel to join the Meghna at the south of the Munshiganj subdivision.

In 1809, Buchanan Hamilton wrote that the new channel between Bhawanipur and Dewanranj "was scarcely inferior to the mighty river, and threatens to sweep away the intermediate country". By 1830, the old channel had been reduced to its present insignificance. It was navigable by country boats throughout the year and by launches only during rains, but at the point as low as Jamalpur it was formidable throughout the cold weather. Similar was the position for two or three months just below Mymenensingh also.

As early as in 1830 there were resumption proceedings for chars which had formed in the new bed. Enquiries showed that many of the new formations were on the site of permanently settled villages which had been washed away by the changes in the course of the Jamuna and the Daokoba. The process has gone on ever since, and Buchanan Hamilton's remarks on the villages of Bengal are specially applicable to this area. He says that "a change in the site of a village 4 or 5 miles causes little inconvenience and is considered no more than a usual casualty, which produces on the people no effect of consequence. Even the rich never put up buildings of a durable nature."