THE STORY OF BARO BAZAR

Baro Bazar (big market) is famous for many things. It is in the district of Jessore, Bangladesh. If you go there, you can still see the ruins of past civilization. It will inspire you to look back to the interesting stories.               

There are a lot of archaeological relics at Baro Bazar such as graves, ruins of the palaces of kings and mosques. All these were in existence only 40 years ago, but now you can see only graves, mosques and dighees, piles of bricks of the palaces of King Sree Ram and King Murad.                

The famous tombs of Gazi, Kalu and Champabati stand beside Ber Dighee (big pond). In the middle of Ber Dighee are lying the ruins of king Sree Ram. A lot of visitors, researchers and archaeologists come to see this place.                  

There are three different interesting stories about this dighee. One of them is about gold articles and a greedy woman.                 

If you go two miles towards west from Baro Bazar, you will reach Belat village. It is said that this was the former Belat city in the past. Emperor Shah Sekander ruled over this city and he had a son named Borogazi Khan generally known as Gazi.                      

In this village you will see a pond named brother-sister Dighee. It was told that if someone asked for specific things like gold vessels, gold plates, spoon etc. for wedding or grand feast or any other function just before the day of the function, this dighee would have provided those. Next morning the people would see gold vessels and spoons by the side of the pond. No doubt, the people would feel very happy by getting those things. After the function they returned them to the dighee and the articles slowly went to the middle of the water and disappeared nicely. This practice continued for a long time.              

Once a greedy woman held back a gold cockle and did not return it to the dighee. After that incedent, the dighee never supplied anything for the people. Nobody ever saw again such precious gold vessels, plates, pots and spoons. So we see greed begets misery and loss.              

There is another story about a brother and a sister who were drowned in this dighee.   
 
There was a big banyan tree on the west side of the dighee. The passers-by used to sit and take rest under this tree when they got tired. Once a young man and his young wife with her brother were going through this way. There were being carried by a palanquin. The day was so hot that the palanquin bearers could not but take rest. The young bride got thirsty. Her brother rushed to bring water from the dighee.                

When the brother filled the jar with pond water, his leg was fastened with a long chain. The young brother got frightened and rushed to his sister. He gave water to his sister to drink. As she was drinking water, he felt a pull in his leg. Slowly he felt a big pressure in his leg and he was pulled by it. He tried to escape but failed. The brother got much frightened and caught hold of the roots of the banyan tree. The roots were torn. His sister could not tolerate it and leaped out of the palanquin to save her brother. When she caught hold of her brother, suddenly the water whirled with a big motion and flooded the dighee. The bride and her brother were drowned. Within a moment they and the banyan tree vanished deep into the water. The young man and palanquin bearers gaped at this and tears rolled down their face. Still now the villagers and the visitors come to see this place and remember the tragic death of brother and sister. Thereafter the pond is  called brother-sister dighee.                 

There is still another story related to this dighee. This third incident occured in 1935. Arshad Ali, an old man narrated this story to other people. He claimed that he saw a rui fish that looked like two fishes. When he told this, all the villagers rushed to see it. They noticed that when the fish moved it looked like two fishes. They thought that the joined fishes  were the souls of the sister and the brother who were drowned many years ago.   

People gathered there and offered milk, banana, chira, muri etc. to the fish. They thought that it might bring good luck to them. It was no doubt a prejudice and a stupid idea. One day some Aizuddin hit that fish. After that the fish did not appear any more.