History of Sylhet
Sylhet was not a place of first preference for settlement, wedged between Assam and Tripura and with their hills and forests on all three sides, north, east and south and vast water-bodies in the basin impeding movement. The basin, known as Sylhet basin- one of the three geographically distinguishable sub-regions of the vast Bengal delta-the deltaic plain and the Tippera surface being the other two, has its own features. Much of Sylhet, most prominently the central area, forms a saucer-shaped basin. This Sylhet basin can be distinguished from the rest of the recent alluvaium by its subsidence and the profound effect this has had upon the drainage pattern, the sinking of this large area into its present saucer-shape seems to be intimately connected with the rise of the Madhpur Tract. This long basin is also known as the Haor basin because it is a succession of large lake-like water bodies of various sizes known as Haors. It has been held that Hsuan Tsang while giving his account of Samatara makes a reference to Sylhet which he describes as being on the borders of an ocean. Since there cannot be any real ocean in the geographical location of Sylhet in the 7th century A. D. when Hsuan Tsang travelled, it can be taken that he relied on his informers - it appears from the context that the pilgrim never really visited Sylhet – who had reported to him about these endless expanses of joined – together haors. We may recall the usal explanation that the word haor is probably derived from the word Sagara or Sayara i.e. sea or lake. But we have doubts if Hsuan Tsang really meant Sylhet by the word that he used in Chinese transformation i.e. Shi-li-Ch’a-ta-lo. In describing the location of Shi-li-Ch’a-ta-lo Hsuan Tsang says according to Beal’s translation. “Going north-east from this (i.e. Samatata) to the borders of the ocean, we come to the kingdom of Shi-li-Ch’a-ta-lo.
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