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Mallabhum kingdom
694–1947 CE
Bishnupur Estate on James Rennell's Mid-18th Century map.
Capital	Laugram Pradyumnapur Bishnupur
Common languages	Bengali Sanskrit
Religion	Hinduism
Government	Monarchy
Maharaja
• 694–710 CE	Adi Malla
• 1930–1983 CE	Kalipada Singha Thakur
Historical era	Classical India Medieval India Early Modern Period
• Established	694
• Disestablished	29 December 1947 CE
Preceded by Succeeded by Gauda Kingdom British Empire

Mallabhum (The country originally known as Mallabhoom or Mallabani Bengali: মল্লভূম or Bishnupur kingdom) was the kingdom ruled by the Malla kings of Bishnupur, primarily in the present Bankura district in Indian state of West Bengal.

History

Territory of the Mallabhum

Mallabhum was a territory which included Bankura, a part of Burdwan, Birbhum, Santhal Parganas, Midnapur and also a part of Purulia. The Malla Rajas ruled over the vast territory in the south-western part of present West Bengal and a part of southeastern Jharkhand.

Extent

From around 7th century CE until the advent of British rule, the history of Bankura district is identical with the rise and fall of the Hindu Rajas of Bishnupur.

Administration

Mahals

According to Bhattacharjee, Tarun Dev (1982) during Malla period, the society was centred round the village. The tax collectors were called as Gumasta and their assistants as Aat Pahari or Paik. The Mukhiya or Mandal was the title of headman, who was regarded as the guardian of the village.Malla kings had several service groups. Due to scarcity of money, the Malla kings used to present land instead of salary to all these service groups. This type of land is again of two types – namely the Panchaki jamin or land with a little tax and another one is the Bepanchaki jamin or land without any tax. Again the lands were named as per the service groups name as Senapati mahal for the head of the soldier, land given to the sentry was Mahalbera Mahal, and land given to the bodyguard was Chharidar Mahal.

According to LSS O’Malley:

Large portions of the old estate of Bishnupur were under jungle and the timber, firewood, honey, wax, etc., which they yielded, formed a valuable source of revenue. The right of collecting these jungle products was farmed out by the Raja, and the revenue he obtained thereby was called the Jungle Mahal, and had nothing to do with arable land.

The Bishnupur Raj maintained a distinct Jungle Mahal, which consisted solely of forested areas, where forest resources were regularly harvested and sold.

Great Bishnupur famine of 1770

Around 1770-71, as the "great famine" swept through the region, the South Western Highlands of Bengal had transformed into a land of the dead. According to W.W. Hunter, the situation was summed up in his famous Annals of Rural Bengal:

“Before the end of 1770, one-third of the population was officially calculated to have disappeared; in June the deaths were returned as ‘six is to sixteen of the whole inhabitants’, and it was estimated that ‘one half of cultivators and payers of revenue will perish with hunger.’…in 1771, it was discovered that the remnant of the population would not suffice to till the land”.

The greatest threat to the Company was depopulation, which, despite the famine, led them to continually pressure the local rulers—the now-weakened Rajas of Bishnupur (referred to as Bishenpore by Hunter). In Bishnupur, hundreds of villages were completely abandoned, and even in the larger towns, fewer than one-fourth of the houses remained occupied. Purnia and Bishnupur were the two districts in Bengal that suffered the most from the famine. In 1772, Warren Hastings estimated that by that time, one-third of the population had perished.

Malla rulers

Malla's started their own calendar that is Malla era (Mallabda). It is told that Malla era started from Indra Dwadasi day in the year 102 Bengali calendar of the month Bhadro (August- September).

Temples

According to Dr. Bloch, Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of India, Eastern Circle, the twelve date temples range in chronological order as follows:

In popular culture

Film

• Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Kolkata, brings you the Fourth Documentary from 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗹𝗺 𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹. The video is a presentation on the dhrupad gharana of Bishnupur kingdom.

See also

• Bishnupur gharana
• Dashavatari Ganjifa
• Baluchari sari

Gallery

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v t e

• Rasmancha (1600 CE)
• Inscription on Shyamrai Temple (1643 CE)
• Jor Mandir (1726 CE)
• Radhamadhab Temple (1737 CE)
• Kalachand Temple (1656 CE)
• Jor-Bangla Temple or Keshta Roy Temple (1655 CE)
• Jor Mandir complex (1726 CE)
• Madan Mohan Temple (1694 CE)
• Inscription on Radha Shyam Temple (1728 CE)
• Radha-Gobinda Temple (1729 CE)
• Shyam Ray Temple (1643 CE)
• Bishnpur fort gate
• Panchchura temple
• Stone chariot of Bishnupur
• Nandalal Temple
• Rashmancha (gate)
• Jor Bangla Temple (arches)
• Jor Bangla temple (Terracotta work)
• Jor Bangla Temple (Ramayana motifs)
• Shyamrai Temple (RasChakra)(Terracotta work)

References

1. "Sanskrit - Banglapedia". en.banglapedia.org.
2. Biswas 1992, pp. 6.
3. Steemers, Koen (2000). Architecture, City, Environment: Proceedings of PLEA 2000 : July 2000 ... James & James (Science Publishers) Ltd. p. 377. ISBN 1902916166.
4. "Bishnupur". Britannica. Mallabhum kingdom
5. Dasgupta, Biswas & Mallik 2009, p. 12.
6. Dasgupta, Biswas & Mallik 2009, p. 19-20.
7. ^ "Forest Tenures in the Jungle Mahals of South West Bengal" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
8. Chaudhuri, Nani Gopal (1949). "Some of the Results of the Great Bengal and Bihar Famine of 1770". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 12: 239–244. ISSN 2249-1937.
9. Dasgupta, Biswas & Mallik 2009, p. 19.
10. Dasgupta, Biswas & Mallik 2009, p. 31-43.
11. "Bankura Gazetteer CHAPTER XIV" (PDF). bankura.gov.in. Government of West Bengal. p. 185. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 August 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
12. "ASI, Kolkata Circle". www.asikolkata.in.
13. "ASI, Kolkata Circle". www.asikolkata.in.

Sources

• Dasgupta, Samira; Biswas, Rabiranjan; Mallik, Gautam Kumar (2009), Heritage Tourism: An Anthropological Journey to Bishnupur, Mittal Publications, ISBN 978-81-8324-294-3
• Biswas, S. S. (1992). Bishnupur (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ed.). Director General, Archaeological Survey of India.

External links

• Mallabhum
• Bankura district
• States and territories established in the 690s
• States and territories established in the 7th century
• Dynasties of Bengal
• Medieval Indian monarchies