According to the Bengali Vocabulatory, the name Paharpur (Pahar = hill, pur = locality) means a locality of hill. It is a village in Badalgachi Upazila of Naogaon District. The nearest railway station of Jamalganj that lies on the Khulna-Parvatipur rail tract and is connected with Paharpur by a 5 km long brick metalled bye-way. Paharpur can also be reached from its nearest airport, Sayedpur, following a metalled road via Joypurhat. The village contains the ruins of a Buddhist monastery which was called Somapura Mahavihara (the great monastery situated in the locality of moon) in the ancient Buddhist World. It is now a World Cultural Heritage (BGD. 292). The monastery is square in plan, being 281m on each side. Built by Dharmapala (781-821 AD) the second ruler of the Pala dynasty, and reconstructed at least twice by his descendants, each of its with has thick exterior wall with two entrance provisions on the north and one in the east. Besides, there has a row of monastic cells, fronted by a running corridor, abutting the exterior wall. Some of the cells contain solid pedestals. There has also a sub-worshipping point in the mid-most part of each wing excepting the north one. Each worshipping point, excepting the southern one, has a staircase connection with the monastery courtyard in front. In the center of the open courtyard of the monastery there stands the residual vestige of a four-faced shrine.
