His reputation as a strong and charitable ruler has made him considered to be the Robin Hood of Southeast Bengal, robbing the rich and rewarding the poor.
Some traditions mention that when Dilwar was a baby, he and his mother were shipwrecked and ended up in the beaches of Sandwip, an island famed for Portuguese piracy.
[1] Other sources like historians Syed Murtaza Ali and Muhammad Abdul Kader claim that his motherland was in Dhaka, which somewhat explains how he found employment in the Mughal naval services there.
[4] Also, famous historian Sir Jadunath Sarker referred him as "a run-away captain of the Mughal navy" who had established himself as a king[5] As piracy was prevalent in the island for many decades, many people ruled over it before the Kingdom of Mrauk U took over after defeating the Portuguese pirate Sebastian Gonzales Tibao.
Dilwar secretly resigned from his Mughal duties to take over Sandwip where he began ruling independently with his family and own private army.
According to Syed Murtaza Ali, Dilwar did this by playing the Mughal army against Arakan, allowing him to rule peacefully.
[6] Samuel Purchas, a European traveler to Sandwip, mentions that majority of citizens were Muslims but that the minority Hindu population was treated fairly by Dilwar too.
[7] In 1629, Thiri Thudhamma, the King of Arakan, realised that Dilwar was not willing to accept his subjugation and so sent troops on a flotilla to deal with him.
[6] On 18 November 1665, Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal, sent Abul Hasan to lead a conquest to Sandwip and defeat Dilwar who was 80-years old at the time.
[13][4] Famous historians like Ghulam Husain Salim, Jadunath Sarkar, Professor Mohammad Mohor Ali, Suniti Bhushan Qanungo and Maulvi M. Abdul Halim claimed that Dilwar was captured and sent to Jahangirnagar (Dacca, currently Dhaka) under the charge of Zaminder Monawwar Khan and subsequently he died in prison there.
As a means of compensation, Shaista Khan granted Dilal's younger sons a jagir of 10–12 villages on the banks of the Dhaleshwari River in an area known as Patharghata-Mithapukur near Dhaka.