Bhitargarh Fort

Bhitargarh Fort formed a part of the chain of early medieval mud-forts erected mostly by the Muslim rulers at different times to defend their territory against the incursion of their northern Hindu neighbours. The territory east of the Karatoya River was for sometime a part of the Ahom kingdom. In the15th century this area was included in the Tibeto-Barman Khen dynasty's territory and served as a sort of buffer state between Assam and the Muslim Kingdom of Bengal.
A survey conducted by rakhaldas bandyopadhyay in 1924 on the trans-Karatoya region, revealed a large number of these frontier strongholds in the district of Rangpur, Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and the neighbouring state of Kochbihar. In these areas there are a number of places known as duars meaning doorways or fords, which a labyrinth of broad and fast flowing hill-streams intersect.
The remains of a chain of such medieval forts still survive precariously in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts along the Karatoya River represented by a series of low earthen mounds. Included among these are the picturesque ruins of dariyaon fort near Kantaduar in Rangpur; Bhitargarh and Ghoraghat forts in Dinajpur; Batason Fort between Karatoya and Tista; Dharmapalagarh and Mainamatirgarh near Domar and Nilphamari; Baro-Paikergarh near Belwa in Dinajpur and Gosaimari fort on the Dharla river in southern part of the Kochbihar State.
Among these the most extensive and spectacular remains are the complicated defense system at Bhitargarh, located on the dried course of the Talma river, an offshoot of the Karatoya placed astride frontier strategic duar between Jalpaiguri and the northern tip of Bangladesh. Bhitargarh fort is now in Panchagarh district.
Before the partition of India in 1947 this area was included in the Jalpaiguri district and still earlier it formed a part of the kamarupa kingdom. It is likely that the significant name of Panchagarh meaning 'five forts' might have originated from the existence of five-forts in the area. Perhaps these forts are: Bhitargarh, Bodheshwargarh, Mirgarh, Hossaingarh and the fifth unspecified one probably was engulfed by the erosion of the Karatoya.
Although, in its present greatly reduced condition it is difficult to ascertain the full extent of the outer works of Bhitargarh fort, it seems to have originally embraced an area of about twelve square miles with seven earthen ramparts to the south and three regular circumvolutions to the north, one inside the other, and enclosed within moats. Its northern rampart, about 15 feet broad, is enclosed by about 50 feet wide fosse along the Bangladesh-India border. Now only one rampart on the west overlooks the Talma rivulet, which originally might have served as a natural defence and also as a source of water for the different moats. The innermost enclosure is about four miles long from north to south and about two miles across. It is entirely surrounded by a moat and a rampart and at places by two ramparts. The middle enclosure is about half a mile long with a large tank inside on the northeastern corner with traces of eight landing ghats regularly disposed on its high banks on four sides. Scattered ruins of old brick masonry are traceable inside this innermost enclosure.
One large brick mound near it is reported to be the vestige of a ruined palace, while two other smaller mounds on the bank of a smaller tank are pointed out to be sites of temples. Although the area is dotted with isolated brick mounds it is devoid of any substantial brick structure, perhaps because, most of the dwellings inside were of temporary nature.