Gouda, a Ghost City

Many of these places are associated with events that shaped the destiny of India and transformed the country from a medieval to a modern one. The oldest among the places, Gouda or Gour , is also the least known outside Bengal

This is hardly supervising because Gouda has ceased to exist now for four centuries. A few relics are strewn like bones over the area where once stood a proud city, Gouda-the name also denotes a principality comprising western and North –western Bengal was referred to in Panini’s Sutras and Kautilya’s Arthashatra. But it reached the pinnacle of glory under the Pala and the Sena kings. To Gouda belongs the dual distinction of the being the capital of the last Hindu Monarch as well as the last independent sultan of Bengal.

The Pala dynasty, which produced the last great kingdom and established is relations with distant potentates. More important, they fostered religion and the culture and encouraged the spread of both abroad. It was under the Palas that the universities of Uddandapura and Vikramsila were setup. Great artists and scholars like Dhimana, Vitapala, Chakrapani and Sandhyakara graced the courts of the Palas. Devout Buddhists themselves, the Palas allowed full freedom of worship to their subjects.