Raja Ram Mohan Roy House

The location of the historic Khalia Zamindar Bari, known as the house of Raja Rammohan Roy, is located in Khalia of Rajair Upazila of Madaripur District. This nearly 400-year-old house is a zamindar house from the zamindar of Uzani. There is a folk-tale about Raja Rammohan Roy's finding a vacant zamindari built around the 1700s. It is said that Raja Rammohan Roy's parents used to work as slaves in the zamindar house of Ujani. While going to work, they used to leave little Raja Rammohan Roy in the courtyard and the phonimansa tree in the courtyard protected Rammohan from the sun and rain. The zamindar of Ujani saw this and noticed a Rajtilak on Rammohan Roy's body. And in view of this incident, the zamindar of Ujani donated one of his seven zamindaris to Rajaram Mohan Roy and freed his parents from being slaves. From here Raja Ram Mohan Roy started as a zamindar.

Spread over an area of ​​about 250 acres, the premises of Raja Rammohan Roy's house have a three-story building, garden house, puja mandap and well-built pond ghat. At present the temple of Raja Rammohan Roy's house is under the supervision of the Directorate of Archaeology.

There are various direct bus services from Gabtali and Keraniganj of Dhaka to Madaripur via Padma Bridge. From Gabtali you can go to Madaripur by Sabrik, Chandra and Sohel Paribahan buses. The non-AC bus fare will cost Tk 350-400. Besides, you can take the bus from Gabtali to Barisal and get off at Mustafapur and from there you can go to Madaripur Sadar. And from Dhaka's Sadarghat, MV Tarika or Dwipraj's launch service travels to Madaripur. From Madaripur district by bus or CNG you can reach Rajai Upazila by local transport and go to Raja Rammohan Roy's house or Khalia Zamindar's house.

There are various quality hotels to stay in Madaripur. Notable are Hotel Sarbik (01788-812111), Hotel Zahid (01911106832), Hotel Metro (01751544337) and Hotel Lake View (01771000471). Apart from this, there is an opportunity to stay in Dak Bungalow of Zilla Parishad.

Rajour upazila has several food hotels of average quality. For better quality food, you can go to restaurants in Madaripur district.

Other places to visit in Madaripur include Senapati's Dighi, Mithapur Zamindar Bari, Ganesh Pagal Sewashram, Shakuni Lake and Auliapur Nilkuthi.

Feature Image: Faisal Bappi