Palganj

Palganj named after king Gopal Singh is an ancient village. Raja of Chhattisgarh decided to establish his empire in this village. The village has wide streets and decorated habitations. There is an ancient Jain temple. In Jainism the village has been mentioned as Patalgarh.


The golden period of Palganj-------------------------------------Enough history is not available but what we learned from our forefathers we can rely on the facts:Kingdom of Palganj was spread upto Jamunai river in south and upto Barakar river in north. Parasnath hill was the property of Palganj Estate. As I have already mentioned in this text that there is a Jain temple in Palganj, a temple when Jainism was not divided in two sects. Later on it is run by Digambar Jainis. Parasnath hill was sold to Jain king to establish their pilgrimage spots on the hill and also in tarrain called Madhuban. The forest produce yielded Rs 100000 per annum and Rs 60000 from rent each year from farmers. Thus the king was in lavish style along with his 360 mouzas which produced plenty of foodgrains. It was supposed that one mouza's income may be spent per day to meet the expenditures. The king sponsored one Sanskrit pathshala and one Middle English School. The nearby Brahmin families enjoyed the scolorship given by the king for studies. The scholorship was a seer of rice, one cup of castar oil for light and one anna for other expenditure. Sanskrit pathshala was associated with Calcutta University . In such a way it was a manufacturing factory of pundits. Similar sponsorship was made for English school also but it could not gain so much popularity.Sanskrit school produced many scholors for the community.Besides from these the king was himself not so qualified but popular among Jainis. They used to visit the Jain temple and worshiped the king also. It is a legend prevailing in the area that the king had stone finger tips. So only his foot was worshipped. The stooges of the king covered him with a cloth sheet as he was black in color and the king lied with simplicity. The silver coins had been to be collected with the permission of the queen and had been spread on the roof to dry. Stooges always advised the queen that drenched sliver coins may shorten after drying in measurement. Stooges used to steal lots of coin.The other side of history says that the king was cruel enough for pilgrims. No pilgrim was allowed to worship without worshiping the king. Historians may differ but the legendary tales do not differ.