Dhalbhum was the name given to parganas Supur and Ambikanagar in the

Khatra Khatra is a census town in the Khatra community development block in the Khatra subdivision of the Bankura district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Khatra subdivision. Geography Location Khatra is in the ...

area of present

Bankura district Bankura district (Pron: bãkuɽa) is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is part of Medinipur division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. Bankura district is surrounded by Purba Bardhaman distri ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

.O’Malley, L.S.S., ICS, ''Bankura'', ''Bengal District Gazetteers'', pp. 194-195, 1995 reprint, first published 1908, Government of West Bengal In the course of time, Dhalbhum kingdom was spread over a much wider area, across the western part of adjoining

Midnapore district Midnapore district was a district of the state of West Bengal, India. This district was bifurcated on 1 January 2002 into the Purba Medinipur district and the Paschim Medinipur district. On 4 April 2017, the Jhargram subdivision of Paschim Medin ...

and the eastern and south-eastern parts of

Singhbhum district Singhbhum was a district of India during the British Raj, part of the Chota Nagpur Division of the Bengal Presidency. It was located in the present-day Indian state of Jharkhand. Chaibasa was the district headquarters. Located in the southern li ...

in present-day

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

.Ghosh, Binoy, ''Paschim Banger Sanskriti'', (in Bengali), part II, 1978 edition, p. 56, Prakash Bhaban

History

According to tradition, the original Raja of Dhalbhum was Chintamoni Dhoba, a person of Rajak caste. The ''pai'' or grain measure used in these parganas was for a long time called ''Chintaman pai''. Legend goes on to say that Dhalbhum was wrested from him by Jagannath Deb of

Dholpur Dholpur is a city in the Dholpur district in Rajasthan state of India. It is situated on the left bank of the famous Chambal river. The city is the administrative headquarters of Dholpur District and was formerly seat of the Dholpur prin ...

in Rajputana. After 32 generations Supur Raj, as it was locally called, was divided in consequence of a disputed succession. One of the successors continued at Supur and the other shifted to Ambikanagar. Both the families were related to the families of Bishnupur,

Raipur Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of Ch ...

, Shyamsundarpur and others. They ruled for about 700 years. A branch of the same family ruled in Chikligarh or Jamboni. Rankini Devi is established as the family goddess of the Dhalbhum rulers. It is said that human sacrifice was offered to the goddess every year,

Dhalbhumgarh

Dhalbhumgarh Dhalbhumargh is a village in the Dhalbhumgarh CD block in the Ghatshila subdivision of the East Singhbhum District in the Indian state of Jharkhand. History Dhalbhum was first written about when the British Army attacked the Dhalbhum and ...

is a community development block in

East Singhbhum district East Singhbhum is one of the 24 districts of Jharkhand, India. It was created on 16 January 1990. More than 50% of the district is covered by dense forests and mountains, where wild animals once roamed freely. It is known for being a centre of ind ...

, in

where it borders

and

Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of S ...

. The town is on NH 33. There is a railway station.

References

Bankura district Paschim Medinipur district East Singhbhum district {{jharkhand-geo-stub