Jashore, Khulna
Jashore
One of the oldest districts of Bengal, famous for winter date-palm molasses, the flower fields of Gadkhali, the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s birthplace at Sagardari and the Benapole border crossing to India.
Local food to try
Where to eat
Where to stay
Culture
An old saying runs “Jashorer jash, khejurer rash” — Jashore’s fame is its date-palm sap.
- Date-palm molasses (khejur gur): from late autumn, gachhis climb the date palms each evening to tap the trees and collect the sap at dawn. It is drunk fresh or boiled down into liquid jhola gur and hard patali cakes, the base of winter pithas across Bangladesh.
- Gadkhali’s flowers: the villages of Jhikargacha grow tuberose, gladiolus, roses, marigolds and gerberas on a large scale, and the morning flower market at Gadkhali supplies much of the country, peaking before Pohela Falgun, Valentine’s Day and 21 February.
- Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824–1873), who brought blank verse and the sonnet into Bangla poetry, was born at Sagardari on the Kopotaksho river; the Madhu Mela is held there every January around his birthday.
- Jashore was a centre of the 19th-century indigo revolt, a story still told across the region.
History
Jashore (long spelt Jessore) is one of the oldest districts in the country: the British made it a district in 1781. The name is older still, recalling the kingdom of Raja Pratapaditya, one of the Baro Bhuiyan chieftains of the late 16th century, whose seat lay in what is now Satkhira.
In the 19th century the region was at the heart of the indigo revolt, when peasants refused to grow indigo for European planters; the ruins of old indigo kuthis still stand in its villages. In 1971, Jashore was freed on 6 December, among the first districts to be liberated in the War of Independence.
Today Jashore is a busy commercial town on the Bhairab river and the gateway to the south-west. It sits on the main road and rail routes between Dhaka, Khulna and the Benapole land port, and its countryside is known across Bangladesh for date palms, flowers and vegetables.
Plan your visit
Best time to visit
November to February, for date-palm molasses and the flower fields at their peak
How to get there
- By bus from Dhaka: about 4–5 hours via the Padma Bridge, with day and night departures; some services still run via the Paturia–Daulatdia ferry and take longer.
- By bus from Khulna: about 1.5 hours; buses run often through the day.
- By train: intercity trains link Jashore with Dhaka (over the Padma Bridge rail line), Khulna and Rajshahi. Check current schedules before you travel.
- By air: Jashore Airport has domestic flights to and from Dhaka, a flight of under an hour.
Getting around
- In town, rickshaws and battery auto-rickshaws (easy bikes) go everywhere; Doratana is the central crossroads.
- Frequent buses run along the Jashore–Benapole road, passing Gadkhali on the way.
- For Sagardari, take a bus to Keshabpur and then a local auto-rickshaw, or hire a CNG or car for the day.
- Hiring a car makes it easy to combine Gadkhali and Benapole, or Sagardari, in one day.