Bishnupur Guide

After downfall of the Malla dynasty the royal cannon was carelessly half-buried under the red soil of Bishnupur. But the legend who bears the dormant history of wars in Bengal, established itself over the surface again by the help of the British rulers in 1919. Dalmadal, the great royal cannon and historical proof of Bishnupur is still standing firmly with all its glorious personality and confidence.

According to history Maharaja Bir Humbeer spent One lack & Twenty Five Thousand Rupees to manufacture this devastating weapon to protect his kingdom. In Bengali language ‘Dala’ means ‘Group’ which indicates ‘Enemies’ here and ‘Mardan’ means ‘Destroy’. So it’s easy to understand that the name itself signifies the purpose and activities of the gigantic royal piece of iron. Some people say Dalmadal is a combined shape of two individual cannon Dal & Madal. Generally the Bramhins of Bishnupur believes that there were many famous religious hailstones under the territory of Malla kingdom and one of them was Dalmadal stone which was former traditional God of Jagannath Karmakar the reputed artisan & creator of the cannon, who named that weapon as a salute. He surprisingly soldered 63 plate of irons and shaped that weapon. It was not so easy to get pure iron from raw mineral-iron at that period which was probably around 1600 AD. Associates of History say that only charcoals were used to burn and melt iron at that time. Elephants and big wheels were used to carry that cannon into the battlefield.

According to famous myth inhabitants of Bishnupur believes that Lord Madanmohan fired that weapon with his own hand to protect His city from the inroads of Maratha dacoits or Borgies. So the local people respects the cannon which was touched and blessed by Lord Madanmohan. Madanmohan is the local name of Lord Krishna.