In Greek and Latin literature of as early as the first
and second centuries B.C., a place Gangabandar is mentioned,
which was the capital of Gangarashtra. Famous for its
fine cotton cloth, it was said to located close to a gold
mine. It is probable that there was some link between
this place and the reference made to "Sona"
(gold) in the names of many places in the Dhaka-Naranyanganj-Vikrampur
region, such as "Suvamabithi", "Suvamagram"
(or Sonargaon), "Sonarang" a..ld "Sonakandi".
The suggestion in Ptolemy's account that there was a gold
mine in central and lower Bengal may not have been entirely
implausible.
On the basis of recent
archaeological discoveries, it has been claimed
that human settlements existed in Vikrampur right
from pre-historic and primitive times. Stone weapons
and implements of various kinds recovered from some
places in Vikrampur are said to indicate the existence
of a paleolithic culture along the banks of the
Padma and Buriganga rivers, where the conditions
favoured human settlement. Traces of what has been
called the middle stoneage have been discovered
at Baghra and Sirajdikhan villages. Evidence that
primitive tribes of the neolothic age lived at Abdullapur,
Kanaksar, Betka and Srinagar at the beginning of
the fourth millennium B.C. is claimed to have been
found.
Some traces of the existence of a neolithic and the incipient
copper age are said to have been discovered as a result
of excavations at some places. At Sonakoti (Lohajang)
and some other places, excavations have yielded neolithic
implements, terracota utensils and residential units of
approximately the 21st century B.c.
Excavations at Rampal, Betka, Munshipara and some other
places have revealed the existence of human settlements,
where the Harppan culture thrived in the 4th and 3rd millennia
B.C. Evidence of the prevalence of the Bronze Age culture
in Vikrampur is also said to have become available. Archaeologists
are credited with the view that in Vikrampur, Negroid
people lived in the higher paeleolithic age and that in
the middle stone age, the Caucasian people appeared in
west Vikrampur and the Mongoloid people in east Vikrampur.
Acknowledgement: this part of the historical background
of Vikrampur has been compiled from the book "In
Sun and Shower" by H.A. Barari.
