বিষ্ণুপুর
The Malla Dynasty Raghunath or Adi Malla reigned for thirty-three years and is known to this day as the Bagdi Raja, probably because the district was then inhabited by aboriginal races over whom he established his rule and also because his foster-mother was a woman of the Kushmetya caste, which is a section of the Bagdis. The family of his fostermother was thereafter given a higher level than the other classes of Bagdis and formed a different section under the name of Majhis. The Majhis were the favourite and trusty servants of the family ever afterwards and are so even to this day. R. C. Dutt, in his book “The Aboriginal Element in the Population of Bengal," doubted the Kshatriya origin of Adi Malla. The story of Kshatriya descent may be legendary, but Dutt had to admit that "the Kshatriyas of Vishnupur can show the same letters patent for their Kshatriyahood as the Rajputs of Northern India, viz., military profession and the exercise of royal powers for centuries.” Adi Malla was followed down to the middle of the sixteenth century by fifty-six rulers in succession, who waged wartare with the neighboring chiefs and extended and consolidated their dominions.
Jagat Malla, nineteenth in descent (994 A.D.), is said to have removed the capital from Pradyumnapur to Vishnupur. There is a legend that, when out hawking at the site of the present Vishnupur, he was surprised to find that one of his hawks was driven off by a heron which had been sitting on a branch of a tree. It occurred to the Raja that this must be due to some mysterious defensive strength of the place, and he made up his mind to make this place, which was then a dense forest, the capital of his Kingdom. The temple of the goddess Mrinmoyee, at the foot of a very old Kelikadamba tree, marks the place where the hawk was struck down by the heron, and where a stone head of the goddess is said to have been discovered after the jungles had been cleared. The Vishnupur Rajas had been worshippers of Malleswar or Shiva, whose temple, in the centre of the town, is the oldest of those still standing, but henceforth became worshippers of the goddess Mrinmoyee or Sakti, who is said to have appeared in a dream to Jagat Malla and asked him to shitt his capital to the present site of Vishnupur, promising him immense prosperity. Jagat Malla reigned for thirteen years, and it was during his reign that the famous Ramai Pandit, the worshiper of Budha under the guise of Dharma, flourished in a village near the site of modern Moynapur. He was regarded as a great saint in Dharmapal's time and the worship of Dharma which he introduced was participated by all castes alike, especiallthye lower castes of the Hindu community and the aboriginal tribes.
With Bir Hambir, forty-ninth in descent (1587 A.D.), we enter into the historical period. He was the first King to be mentioned by the Mahamedan historians. He gained the title of Bir or hero, by defeating with heavy slaughter, Daud Khan, the son of Suliaman Karnani, the independent Pathan King of Orissa, when he tried to invade Vishnupur, and offered a garland of skulls to the goddess Mrinmoyee. A moat outside the present town of Vishnupur and about a mile from the present Civil Station is known as the Ford of Skulls in memory of the bloody encounter. Later, when Daud Khan's nephew, Katlu Khan, invaded Bengal, Bir Hambir threw in his lot with the Moghuls and rendered them good service. In 1591, Raja Man Singha was deputed by Akbar to subdue the Pathans of Orissa. Katlu Khan advanced to meet Man Singha, and a Moghul force under Jagat Singha, the son of Raja Man Singha, was detached to check this movement. The Pathans were worsted and asked for an armistice. Bir Hambir cautioned Jagat Singha of the danger of trusting Katlu Khan too much, but the young Prince disregarded his advice and strayed all alone to Garh Mandaran in Arambagh) on a love errand and paid the penalty for his folly. Katlu Khan, in order to force Man Singha to his terms of peace, seized the opportunity to deliver a night attack, in spite of the armistice. He stormed the Fort of Mandaran and took the Prince captive, but Bir Hambir rescued him trom Katlu Khan's camp (present Kotulpur) and brought him safely to Vishnupur. Bir Hambir's father, Dhari Malla, had acknowledged the suzerainty of the Moghul Viceroy of Bengal, promising to pay an annual tribute of one lakh and seven thousand rupees. This tribute, however, was not strictly enforced against the Malla kings, who were treated more as allies than as dependants. Bir Hambir suffered for his loyalty to the Moghuls, for two years later the Pathans came again and ravaged his territory. Bir Hambir had been a brave soldier who organized a military system on a feudal basis and had greatly improved the fortifications of Vishnupur; he had cannons placed on the walls of the ramparts and largely increased the numerical strength of the army. He probably constructed the fine large stone gateway of the Vishnupur Fort and the big cannon, Dalmardan, which means the vanquisher of an army. But his military career was cut short by an unexpected event which turned him into a gentle and devout Vaishnaba. Tradition says that his Court astrologers foretold that on a certain day some very valuable and rare gems would pass through the north-western borders of his Kingdom. The Raja's curiosity was aroused and he sent his men to lie in ambush for these valuables near the present Ramsagar, and they brought back to him three cartloads of very valuable Vaishnaba manuscripts which three Vaishnaba saints, headed by Srinibas Acharjya, had been escorting from Brindaban. Srinibas Acharjya came to the Court of Bir Hambir in search of the lost treasures and ultimately converted him to Vaishnabism-worship of Vishnu or Krishna—by his unique exposition of its Philosophy. Bir Hambir thereafter installed the idol of Kala Chand (Sri Krishna) at Vishnupur and had the initial worship done by Srinibas Acharjya himself. He also brought there from the temple of a Brahmin of Brishabhanupur of the district of Burdwan, the idol of Madan Mohan (Sri Krishna) which was later, according to the traditions, to play an important part during the Maharatta raids on Vishnupur. He adorned his capital in the manner of the Vaishnabas of Brindaban, introduced the Vaishnaba festivals Rash, Dol and others—in Vishnupur, and constructed the magnificent temple of Rashmancha. The days of Mrinmoyee were now over and Madan Mohan became the presiding Deity of the House. The cart loads of Vaishnaba manuscripts proved a treasure indeed, as the real civilisation of Vishnupur begins from this period.
It is probable that the name Vishnupur was given to the place after Bir Hambir was converted to the worship of Vishnu. But his greatness was also manifested in the spirit of toleration which he showed in religious matters. He welcomed to his Court a Mahamedan saint, Pir Kurman Shah, and granted lands for his maintenance and worship, and the saint's grave at Kurmantala is, even to this day, adored by Mahamedans and Hindus alike. Rent-free lands were granted not merely to the Brahmins but also to Mahamedan saints, and, even to this day, the Hindus of Vishnupur participate with the Mahamedans in the construction of the Tajias on the occasion of the Muharam festival. Thus, the revival of Vaishnabism by Srinibas Acharjya turned the tide of religion from the dreadful practice of offering human sacrifices to the goddess Mrinmoyee in favour of all-embracing love and humanity, and the glory of Mallabhum as a centre of art and civilisation begins from this happy circumstance,
Bir Hambir was succeeded by his son, Raghunath Singha, the first of the line to assume the Kshatriya title of Singha or Lion, which was granted by the then Viceroy, Prince Sujah, being pleased with his exquisite horsemanship. Raghunath Singha completed the temple of Malleswar which was started in Bir Hambir's time, and constructed the beautiful temples of Shyam Rai, Jorbangla and Kala Chand. The remark made by Hunter that “Vishnupur was formerly the most renowned city in the world, more beautiful than the house of Indra in Heaven," probably refers to this period. But, although the beautifully carved temples erected by Raghunath and the later kings prove them to have been pious kings and patrons of Hindu art and architecture, it is a fact that, from this period, they lost much of their independence and gradually sank to the position of tributary princes. Bir Singha, the son of Raghunath Singha, is said to have built the present fort, excavated seven big lakes or tanks and erected the temple of Laljiu in 1658, and his wives, Siromoni and Churamoni, had the temples of Madan Gopal and Murali Mohan built in 1665 A.D. Nevertheless, he was a cruel Raja who did not scrupl to commit acts of cruelty even on his own sons, and he came to a miserable end by committing suicide in horritied remorse after killing a Brahmin boy. He was succeeded by his son, Durjan Singha, the builder of the temple of Madan Mohan, in 1694. These Rajas chose to lavish all the resources of the State on these places of worship rather than to build a suitable palace for themselves, and the contrast cannot fail to strike the most casual visitor to the ruins.
The end of the seventeenth century left the Vishnupur Rajas at the zenith of their fortunes. Their territory lay beyond the direct control of the Mahamedan power, and, as the “Wardens of the Marches”, they were treated by the Viceroys of Bengal as allies rather than subjects. The first half of the eighteenth century witnessed the beginning of their downfall. Their power suffered from the aggressions of the Maharaja of Burdwan, who seized a considerable tract of country known as the Fatehpur Mahal, and from the invasions of the Maharattas, who laid waste the whole country. The Rajas, who now ruled over Mallabhum, were unable to cope with their difficulties.
Gopal Singha, fifty-fifth in descent (1730-1745 A.D.), was a pious king, whose memory is held in veneration even to this day by the people of Vishnupur. He issued an edict that all the people of Mallabhum should count their beads and repeat the name of the Lord every evening at sunset. This evening prayer is still known to this day as Gopal Singher Begar or Gopal Singha's forced service. During his reign, when Aliverdi Khan was the Viceroy of Bengal, the Maharattas under Vaskar Rao appeared before the southern gate of Vishnupur and encamped in the portion of the town which is now occupied by the Sub-divisional Offices and which is still known as the Maharastra danga. Gopal Singha sallied out and fought with spirit till sunset when, true to his edict, he broke off the fight and ordered both citizens and soldiers to join in prayers to his family's god, Madan Mohan, regardless of consequences. Then, says the legend, while the whole people were in a state of frenzy over the name of the Lord, cannons (including the big cannon Dalmardan) were heard booming from the ramparts, fired (as is generally believed even to this day) by the god, Madan Mohan, himself. This created a panic in the enemy camp and Vaskar Rao with his Maharatta cavalry retired, leaving the Raja's levies to plunder their abandoned camp. But, year after year, the inexhaustible Maharatta hordes fell with their heaviest weight upon the border principalities of Birbhum and Vishnupur. Tribute, free quarters, forced services, exactions of many kinds reduced the once powertul frontier Houses to poverty, and their tenantry fled from a country in which the peasant had become a mere machine for growing food for the soldier. The Raja Chaitanya Singha, the last in this long chain of glorious kings, was a devout Vaishnaba of a retiring disposition, which made him all the more unfit to deal with the troubles which now. arose. In his despair he entrusted the direction of State affairs to his Chief Minister, Chhatrapati Kamal Biswas, and spent his time in religious discussions and meditation. Damodar Singha, one of his cousins, took advantage of the Raja's unpopularity to advance his claims to the Raj. He repaired to the Court of the Nawab Shirajudaulla at Murshidabad and succeeded in obtaining from him a strong force with which he tried to enforce his claims, but met with an ignominious defeat at Sanghatgola at the hands of Kamal Biswas, and narrowly escaped with his life. On his return to Murshidabad he found Mir Jaffar Khan set up in the place of his old patron, Shirajudaulla, but was furnished by him with a stronger force. With this he advanced on Vishnupur by stealthy marches and, overcoming a feeble resistance on the way, surprised the fort at the dead of night. Chaitanya Singha made good his escape and came to Calcutta with the family idol (Madan Mohan) which he pawned to Gokul Mitra of Baghbazafror three lakhs of rupees. He placed his case before the Sudder Dewany Adalat and succeeded in being reinstated by the British, but his country was impoverished by the successive raids of the Maharattas and desolated by the famine of 1770. Alarge portion of the population was swept away, lands fell out of cultivation, distress and destitution drove the people and disbanded soldiers to acts of lawlessness and violence. The old Raja had no power to control these elements of disorder. He had already been reduced from the position of a tributary prince to that of a mere zemindar, and being unable to collect his rents and pay the exorbitant revenue, he was thrown into prison. The ruin. of the old House was completed by family disputes, costly litigations and a heavy revenue, and the State was sold in 1806 for arrears of land revenue and bought up by the Maharaja of Burdwan. Since then, the family had been dependent on small pensions granted by Government and a little debuttar property (property dedicated to religious purposes), but they still retain a strong hold on the affections of the people. The idol of the god, Madan Mohan, was never redeemed, and the deep sorrow caused by its loss to Vishnupur is commemorated still in many pathetic ballads. The last of the temples, that of Radha Shyam, was built by Chaitanya Singha and dedicated in 1758 A.D.