The legend of Parir Pahar

The administrative centre of Chattogram division and Chattogram district stands on the top of a hill with a peculiar name of "Parir Pahar", which translates to fairy hill.

As the Chattogram Court Building, offices of the divisional commissioner and deputy commissioner of Chattogram are all located on the hilltop, it remains abuzz with people in working days.

"Parir Pahar, once a silent hill adjacent to Laldighi, became an important place after the British shifted the court and other government offices on the hilltop in 1857. Earlier, the court and government offices were located on the hilltop of present Government Hazi Muhammad Mohsin College near Chawkbazar," said Prof Anupam Sen, Vice Chancellor of Premier University Chattogram.

Since then, Parir Pahar has been the heart of Chattogram's administration and judicial activities, he said.

Asked, Dr Anupam said there was a myth that fairies used to dance once upon a time on the top of that hill. People believed that genies and fairies used to rule over Chattogram.

"The name Parir Pahar or Fairy Hill came from this legend. There was no formal name for the hills at that time, people used to call the hill adjacent to Laldighi 'Parir Pahar' as they believed fairies occupied the hilltop."

"The name Parir Pahar or Fairy Hill came from this legend. There was no formal name for the hills at that time, people used to call the hill adjacent to Laldighi 'Parir Pahar' as they believed fairies occupied the hilltop."

According to the legend, Chattogram was run by genies and fairies in the fourteenth century, who made the lives of common people miserable.

At that time, Peer Badar Shah, a Sufi Saint, came to Chattogram to preach Islam. In the middle of the jungle surrounded by hills and hillocks, he made his way and started to climb a hillock.

However, the legend suggests that the genies and fairies did not agree to make any room for him. They told him that the hills, hillocks and jungles in Chattogram belong to them and so they would not allow any human being to stay there.

At one point in this conversation, Badar Shah sought permission for a place to light a lamp as it was getting dark after sunset, to which the mythical beings agreed. But that was the end of them, as the light forced them out of the area.

During the British regime, Parir Pahar was known as Fairy Hill. At that time, the hill belonged to a Portuguese man named John Harry, from whom British Captain Texra bought the hill. 

Later, One Pareda bought the hill from Texra, who sold it to Zamindar Akhil Chandra Sen of Chhanahara village in Chattogram's Patiya Subdivision for Tk 9,000 in the middle of the nineteenth century.

During the British regime, the administrative centre was located initially on the top of Madrasa Pahar (currently Govt Hazi Muhammad Mohsin College Hill, in front of Chattogram College).

As the new town was expanding through the south, the British government felt the need to shift the offices and the court to another place. For this purpose, the government acquired Parir Pahar from Zamindar Akhil Chandra Sen in 1889 and built a two-storey building at a cost of Tk six lakh on the top of the hill in 1893-1894. Later, the court and other government offices were shifted there from Madrasa Pahar.