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Jannatabad

The now rural location of Gaur or Gauḍa near the Gour Malda train station was probably once Ramavati.1 It is certainly the location of Gaur2 (although the ruins also extend into Bangladesh) and is along the Ganga River in the central neck of পশিচণবনগ3 (Paścimbangga)4 in Malda District and Division. Gaur was renamed Jannatabad5 when it was revived as the capital of Bangal in the late 15th century. It was abandoned before 1600.

NameYearPopulationAlternate names
Ramavati1100 CE6probably Gauḍa, Gaur, Jannatabad, Gour Malda
Gaur1200 CE60,0006Gauḍa, Gour Malda, Jannatabad, probably Ramavati
Gaur1300 CE100,0006Gauḍa, Gour Malda, Jannatabad, probably Ramavati
Jannatabad1500 CE200,0006Gaur, Gauḍa, Gour Malda, probably Ramavati

Historical maps

map of Malda and Jalpaiguri divisions of Paścimbangga State, and of Sikkim State, both of Bhārat, and of Druk Yul, 1500 CE

External references

entry gate to former city of Jannatabad or Gaur, modern Gauḍa near the Gour Malda train station, Malda District, Malda Division, Paścimbangga, Bhārat

Footnotes

1. I do not know the medieval non-Roman script for Ramavati. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), page 389, says Ramavati was 'probably modern Gauda.'
2. I do not know the medieval non-Roman script for Gaur.
3. There should be a diglyph/ conjunct for শচ which would eliminate one vertical line, and there should be a diglyph/ conjunct for নগ which would have the core of the second glyph dangle from a curvy version of the first glyph and with a horizontal line with a small loop below it and with no vertical line.
4. The Indian national government may not have approved this name, but the state government uses it. See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/West_Bengal_State_Emblem.jpg, accessed July 18, 2018 for seal. The English name of the state is West Bengal. Paścim (transliterated Hindi) means west.
5. I do not know the medieval non-Roman script for Jannatabad.
6. Tertius Chandler, op. cit., "Tables of the World's Largest Cities." In 1100 as Ramavati, and in 1200, 1300 and 1500 as Gaur, it was the largest city in what is now পশিচণবনগ (Paścimbangga). In 1100 Ramavati was smaller than Kanauj, which had 80 thousand residents, and was greater than Kanchipuram, which had 70 thousand residents. In 1500 Gaur was the seventh largest city in the world.