The 11th century king Govinda-Rana Kesava Deva is recognised for introducing the navadinga (nine war boats) and heavily improving the kingdom's infantry, cavalry, and elephant power.

[6] The early rulers of Gour were said to have belonged to an animist clan known as the Pator-Chutia or Patro which later converted to Hinduism after Raja Guhak's interest in the religion and his initial invitation to Brahmins from Kamarupa to come and migrate to Sylhet.

They have a distinct language to Bengali and Sylheti and many migrated to Assam and Meghalaya following the 1947 Partition of India and 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

Chatala indulged herself in an unlawful relationship with one of the palace servants, leading to her being disowned and dumped in a distant island in the middle of 2000 square mile lake to the south of the kingdom.

[4] Being separated from Kamarupa by the Jaintia kingdom, Gour started interacting more with the Hindu lands to its west such as Tripura and Prayagraj.

He installed a stone Shivalingam, which he called Bateshwar Shiva, in modern-day Bondor Bazar which he obtained during a pilgrimage to Akshayavat in Prayagraj.

The Buddhist and later Muslim rule in Bengal led to large numbers of Hindus to migrate to Gour, which was considered a Hindu stronghold.

In 1027, he constructed a towering stone Krishna temple on the Kangsa-Nisudhana hill (which became the hillock of the Civil Surgeon's Bungalow during British rule).

[13] A famed patron of Hinduism, he hosted hundreds of Brahmins and Vedic scholars from Mithila and other parts of the subcontinent, employing them upon the services of temples in his kingdom.

A yajna was performed in front of Bateshwar Shiva (in modern-day Bondor Bazar) which lasted for a whole year, distributing gold equivalent to his body weight.

These boats; Chali, Hali, Jilkar, Hakaluka, Makarasya, Chatali, Damuria, Barua and Baral are said to be what the modern-day haors of Sylhet take their names from.

After the death of Srichandra of eastern Bengal's Chandra dynasty, Kesava took advantage and conquered the southern parts of the Sylhet region; extending the Gour kingdom south of the Kushiyara River.

His newly-wed and pregnant wife, Kalavati, a princess from Bihar, became the queen regent with Prince Ishan Deva, General Viradatta and Minister Vanamali Kar managing the kingdom.

To celebrate Pravir's birth, Ishan installed the Madhu-Kaitabhari Temple - which contained an image of Vishnu - on a hillock now known as Manik Pir's hill.

However, conspiracies emerged in the country as a number of people were suspicious of Ratnavati accusing her of jealousy and child illegitimacy as Kshetra was an old man by this time.

Scared for his life, Brahmajit moved his capital to a place known as Brahmachal (now Baramchal, Kulaura), just north of the Twipra kingdom.

Ratan believed the Gour administration was going too far and decided to also put a stop to Govardhan's scheme to invade other neighbouring kingdoms.

Jaidev Rai, son of the minister of Raja Upananda, who was the king of Brahmachal before Amar Singh, was made the feudal ruler under the Tripuris.

However, the thirteen royals of Brahmachal who had fled to Kamakhya during the civil war, had returned to Gour, guided by Giridhari, after receiving military training, religious and magical education from the Kamrup region for a number of years.

Using Puni beel as his battlefield against states like Laur and Jaintia, Govinda "drowned his challengers" to such an extent that Gour was described to be "free of enemies" during his reign.

[2] By making peace with Ratan Manikya of Tripura and gifting him an elephant, he was able to retrieve Brahmachal and Tungachal back to Gour administration.

[4] Govinda successfully settled many Brahmins from all over the Muslim-conquered lands of Deccan, Central India and Bengal to live in his kingdom; which they recognised as a Hindu stronghold.

[4] A small number of Muslim families from neighbouring Bengal also settled in Gour, possibly following Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Iuzbak's 1254 Azmardan Invasion.

One day, Ghazi Burhanuddin - who lived with his family in Tultikar - sacrificed a cow for the aqiqah of his newborn son, Gulzar Alam.

After both men being punished, Burhanuddin and Nuruddin's brother, Halimuddin, travelled to lower Bengal where they addressed their issue with Sultan Shamsuddin Firoz Shah.

This marked the start of the Conquest of Sylhet in 1303, with the Sultan appointing his nephew, Sikandar Khan Ghazi, to lead an army against the Raja.

However, in the final battle, Govinda fled with his family following the arrival of the warrior-saint Shah Jalal and his companions, numbering over three hundred.

Sikandar Khan Ghazi was appointed the first Wazir of Sylhet, and Tungachal would subsequently be captured off Achak Narayan in the following year by Syed Nasiruddin and his 12 lascars.

ghaturam In 1877, two copper-plate inscriptions were discovered in the Itertilla or Homer Tila mound in the estate of Babu Jagachchandra Deb Choudhury in the village of Bhatera.

The first plate was written during the reign of Govinda-Rana Kesava Deva and mentions the land grants he made as well as the three kings who preceded him, starting with Navagirvan.