“When Bakhtiyar Khalji wiped out Gauda-Desa from existence”, The Dharma Dispatch, September 27, 2023:

“THE GRIEVOUS SAGA OF BAKHTIYAR KHALJI’s catastrophic devastation of the Nalanda University is well-known despite sustained attempts to whitewash it. What is lesser known is his catholic ravaging of the ancient city of Gaur — one of the original names of today’s Bengal (including Bangladesh). 

After plundering Navadvipa (Nadia), Bakhtiyar set his target on Gaur — also known as Lakshmanavati or Lakhnauti (in Muslim chronicles). 

Gaur was the historic nerve-centre of the Gauda-Desha (Bengal) from very ancient times. For several centuries, it had prospered as the “metropolis of Bengal under its Hindu kings.” When the colonial British surveyed it in the second half of the nineteenth century, local tradition had retained the  civilisational memory of the city: it was known variously as….”

Read the full article at Thedharmadispatch.substack.com