Bharat Rajar Deul is a southern town located 19 km from Keshabpur Upazila of Jessore district. About 1700 years ago, during the Gupta period, this huge seven-shaped building was built by Bharat Raja, which is now a symbol of history and tradition. As a witness of the times, Bharat Vaina’s Deul, which has long been known to the locals as Bharater Deul, still stands tall in glory. On one side of Bharat Deul is a vast village surrounded by greenery and on the other side is the river Bhadra. 1800 years ago, an influential king named Bharata Bhadra ruled over a large part of the Sundarbans, including the banks of this river. To keep his memory alive, he built Bharat Vaina on the banks of the river Bhadra, later known as Bharat Deul or Bharat Raja Deul.
It is also known from history that at the beginning of the twentieth century, a mound with a height of 12.22 meters and a circumference of 266 meters existed in the archeological site. In 1889, Kashinath Dixit, the superintendent in charge of the archeology department of the British government, visited the temple and commented that it was more than 50 feet high and more than 900 feet in diameter. The Department of Archeology of the Government of Bangladesh carried out excavation work on the bank from 1984 to 2001 with an allocation of seven financial years. As a result of excavation, the full appearance of the temple came to the notice of man. But excavations revealed that the surface of the deul was damaged in an earthquake in 1897. Excavations revealed a total of 94 rooms from the base of the entire palace to the end. Four wing walls around. 12 of these rooms.
The Buddhist stupa is made up of the remaining 82 rooms. There are four rooms at the top of the stupa. There are eight more small rooms on either side of this room. Most of the rooms are filled with soil. It is believed that there was a magnificent shrine on the top of the Buddhist saptak. There is a three-meter wide road around the palace. Buddhist monks used to circumambulate around the shrine to attain merit. The houses on the four wing walls were probably occupied by Buddhist monks or spent their leisure time. The walls of each room are three meters to 13 meters wide. Many bricks are 38 cm to 50 cm. The bricks look like they were made by hand. Surprisingly, no other antiquities in the region have used such a large amount of bricks.
According to local sources, antiquities and artifacts found during the excavations include burnt tiger faces, human faces, and fragments of the hands of gods and goddesses. Bricks of different designs, burnt clay toys. Archaeological items are preserved in the Khulna Divisional Museum.
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Ways to go to Bharat Raja Deul
If you want to see Bharat Deol, no matter where you live, you have to go to Khulna first. Because Bharat Raja’s Deul is in Jessore district but it is easy to become Khulna. So you have to go to Khulna by bus or train from Dhaka first. From there you have to go to Bharat Vaina or Bharat Deul by van, engine-driven van or motorbike. It is very easy to reach Bharat Bhayna via Kharnia or Chuknagar on the Khulna-Satkhira highway. If you take a bus from Dhaka to Khulna, the fare will be Tk 400 for non-AC and Tk 700 for AC.
The route from Khulna to Bharat Rajar Deul
First have to come to Mohsin Junction via Daulatpur in Khulna by auto, fare 10 Taka. Then you have to come to Shahpur Bazar by auto (Mahendra) again, in this case, the rent will be 20 Tk. Bharatpur Deul will have to go to Shahpur Bazar in a van or auto. However, the van drivers will not recognize Bharat if they do not say Deul. A van will cost 20 Tk to cover a distance of six to seven kilometers. However, van/auto is not easily available on the way back. It is better to tell the van driver that you will go to the van and he will bring you back.
Where to stay in Khulna
There is no hotel to stay in in the vicinity of Bharat Rajar Deul. To stay you have to stay back at the hotel in Khulna. In the evening you can come back from Khanjahan Ali Bridge. City Inn, Castle Salam, Royal International are some of the hotels in Khulna. There are also many mid-range hotels for overnight stays.
Where to eat
On the way back you can eat Khasi meat from the famous Abbas Hotel in Chuknagar. It is safe to say that the taste of Chai Jhal cooking will satisfy you.
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