Hindu kingdom of the Malla Rajas in the laterite uplands of western Bengal, whose rulers kept an era of their own (the Malla sal) and built the brick and terracotta temples of Bishnupur. Bir Hambir allied with Man Singh's Mughals in the 1590s and adopted Vaishnavism; the raj paid tribute to Murshidabad but administered itself. Maratha raids from 1742, the great famine of 1770 and ruinous litigation broke it.
Reduced to a zamindari under Company revenue administration; the estate was sold for arrears of land revenue in 1806 and bought by the Maharaja of Burdwan, leaving the family on small pensions.
The atlas holds 2 border frames for Mallabhum (Bishnupur Raj) — the shape you scrub through changes in 694 · 1749.
The polity-specific monograph on Malla rule; its own title fixes the documented span 1590-1806. Existence verified via Open Library (/works/OL1037890W).
Nineteenth-century account of the Jungle Mahals and the ruin of the Bishnupur house, quoted at length by the Bankura gazetteer. Verified via Open Library (/works/OL339625W).