Panju Shah (1851-1914) poet and mystic, born in jhenaidah. He belonged to a zamindar family of Shailakupa, which had come down in fortune. He had no formal schooling and learned Bangla, Arabic, and Persian on his own. He was attracted to both Hindu and Muslim devotional songs such as kirtan and jari gan. He became a disciple of Hiraztullah and composed about three hundred songs in the Sufi vein. Sahe Iske Sadeki Gouhar (1890) is inspired by the tenets of sufism. His son, Khandaker Rafiquddin, included some of Panju Shah's songs in his book Bhavsangit. Khandaker Reazul Huq also included more than two hundred of his songs in his book, Marami Kavi Panju Shah. Panju Shah was a humanist. In one of his songs he declares, 'All human beings have the same mind, however different their activities' (Manuser Karan manus bhinna nay ore man). Panju Shah died at Harishpur. [Ramdulal Roy]