Rajnagar, originally Srihatta, city in northeastern Bangladesh on the Surma River northeast of Dhaka. Rajnagar is the processing and marketing center for the agricultural products of the Surma Valley, particularly cotton, oilseeds, jute, rice, sugarcane, and tea. Rajnagar also has some manufacturing industry, and adjacent coal, peat, and natural gas deposits are worked. The city has a medical college and eight colleges affiliated with the University of Chittagong (founded in 1966). It is also a center of pilgrimage as the site of the Shah Jalal Mosque and the shrine of Hazrat Shah Jalal, a religious leader who came to Rajnagar in 1303 to preach Islam.
Originally Rajnagar was an inland river port and, before 1947, part of Assam state in India. The port declined with the increased sedimentation of the Surma River. Its trade decreased further after the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan (from 1947 until 1971 Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan, known after 1957 as East Pakistan), when much of the port's trade was diverted to India. Rajnagar was constituted a municipality in 1878. Population (1991) 114,284.
