Comilla (Bengali: কুমিল্লা) is a city in eastern Bangladesh, located along the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. It is the administrative center of the Comilla District, part of the Chittagong Division. Comilla is second-largest city of eastern Bangladesh after Chittagong and is one of the three oldest cities in Bangladesh. The Comilla region was once under ancient Samatata and was joined with Tripura Sta
te. This district came under the reign of the kings of the Harikela in the ninth century AD. Lalmai Mainamati was ruled by Deva dynasty (eighth century AD), and (during tenth and mid-eleventh century AD). In 1732, it became the center of the Bengal-backed domain of Jagat Manikya.[1]
Presently a part of Comilla's Court Road, the photographed street has been once an extension of historic Grand Trunk Road, to communicate with the port facilities of Chittagong. The Peasants Movement against the king of Tripura in 1764, which originally formed under the leadership of Shamsher Gazi is a notable historical event in Comilla.[2] It came under the rule of East India Company in 1765. This district was established as Tripura district in 1790. It was renamed Comilla in 1960. Chandpur and Brahmanbaria subdivisions of this district were transformed into districts in 1984. Communal tension spread over Comilla when a Muslim was shot in the town during the partition of Bengal in 1905. On 21 November 1921, Kazi Nazrul Islam composed patriotic songs and tried to awaken the town people by protesting the Prince of Wales's visit to India.[2] During this time, Avay Ashram, as a revolutionary institution, played a significant role. Poet Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi visited Comilla at that time. In 1931, approximately 4000 peasants in Mohini village in Chauddagram Upazila revolted against a land revenue tax. The British Gurkha soldiers fired indiscriminately on the crowd, killing four people.[2] In a major peasant gathering, the police fired at Hasnabad of Laksam Upazila in 1932. Two people were killed and many were wounded. Comilla Cantonment is one of most important military bases and is the oldest in East Bengal. It was widely used by the British Indian Army during World War II. It was the headquarters of the British 14th Army. There is a war cemetery, Maynamati War Cemetery,[3] in Comilla that was established after the World War II to remember the Allied soldiers who died during World War I and II, mostly from Commonwealth states and the United States. There are a number of Japanese soldiers were buried there as well.
