ABSTRACT
Carved out of the traditionally Muslim region of East Bengal, and designated East Pakistan following the Partition of British India in 1947, modern Bangladesh straddles the nexus of four major river systems where they meet the Bay of Bengal. Altogether, the JamunaBrahmaputra, the Padma-Ganges (Ganga), the Surma-Meghna and the Padma-Meghna drain 1.6 million square kilometers of the continent, and sustain the livelihoods of up to 400 million South Asians, placing Bangladesh at a critically important geographic crossroads.1 At just under 150,000 square kilometers (58,000 square miles), Bangladesh is a compact, politically volatile country that is home to 10 percent of the world’s population, making it one of the most densely populated nations on Earth. Since independence from Pakistan in 1971 it has also consistently ranked among the poorest, with over 40 percent of its population living beneath the international poverty line.2 This area’s rich ecology has given rise to thriving indigenous cultures over the millennia, while also attracting the attention of conquering empires, beginning with the Maurya in the third century bce on through the period of British rule that ended in the mid-twentieth century. As a result, modern Bangladesh supports an abundance of signicant architectural resources, from the ancient to the modern.
