[5] 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.

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.

[7] The ghatwals were a ‘quasi military body of men employed by the Rajas of Bishnupur’ who were posted as guards at various strategic Ghats or passes in hills and uplands.

Though at the time of the Permanent Settlement (between 1791 and 1802) the area of lands held by ghatwals was not known later surveys of 1854-56 and 1879-1887 estimated the area of the ghatwali land in the Bishnupur Estate to be about 170,000 acres[7] In the late 16th century, Bir Hambir, the ruler of Bishnupur, allied with Mughal general Man Singh during Akbar's campaign against Qutlu Khan Lohani, the Afghan ruler of North Orissa.

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).

[7] Between 1788 and 1809, the Chuars and Paiks of the Bishnupur and Midnapore parganas revolted against the British East India Company under the leadership of Madhav Singha Dev.

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