Nayagarh State was one of the princely states of India during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. It was located in present-day

Nayagarh district Nayagarh district is one of the 30 districts of Odisha state in eastern India. It was created on 01-April-1993 when the erstwhile Puri District was split into three distinct districts, namely Khordha, Nayagarh and Puri. The district is border ...

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

. The state was bounded in the north by

Khandpara State Khandpara State was one of the princely states of India in the British Raj. It was located in present-day Nayagarh district, Odisha. The state was bounded in the north by the Mahanadi River. The main town was Kantilo, but the capital was at K ...

and

Puri District Puri district is a coastal district of the Odisha state of India. It has one Administrative subdivision, sub-division, 11 Tehsils, tahasils and 11 Block (country subdivision), blocks and comprises 1722 revenue villages. Puri is the only Nagar ...

. The capital was at

Nayagarh Nayagarh is both a town and the municipality headquarters of the Nayagarh District, Nayagarh district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Odisha. Geography Nayagarh is located at with an average elevation of 178 metres ( ...

. The southern part of the state was forested and

mountainous A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

and was inhabited mainly by

Khonds Khonds (also spelt Kondha and Kandha) are an indigenous Dravidian tribal community in India. Traditionally , hunter-gatherers, they are divided into the hill-dwelling Khonds and plain-dwelling Khonds for census purposes, but the Khonds the ...

History

According to traditions, Nayagarh state was alleged to have been founded by a scion from the

Rewa State Rewa State, also known as Rewah, was a kingdom and later princely state of India, surrounding its eponymous capital, the town of Rewa. With an area of about , Rewa was one of the largest princely states in the Bagelkhand Agency and the sec ...

before 15th century, but lack of written archival historical records marks them as untenable due to the non-alignment of timelines of both Nayagarh and its collateral Khandpara state with that of the corresponding Rewa state which was founded in 1618 succeeding from Bandhavgarh kingdom, which possibly points to its legendary origins due to the historical obscurity. None of the chiefs of Nayagarh appear to have received farmans from either Mughals or Marathas until the Bhonsle Maharaja of Nagpur

Raghoji I Bhonsle Raghuji I (Raghuji Bhonsle, ; 1695 – 14 February 1755) was a Maratha general who is credited with the Maratha expansion into Gondwana, Odisha, and Bengal, thereby establishing Maratha supremacy in these areas. He was granted the title of ...

gifted the chiefs for his assistance during the Maratha conquest of Orissa. Although it is likely that a local chieftain by the name Baghel Singh (1480-1510 CE) who is reputed to be the founder of Nayagarh, as it was known as ''Baghua Nayagarh'', may likely be the founder of the state and also the progenitor of the dynasty with the same name.''Imperial Gazetteer of India'', v. 18, p. 436.
/ref> Under Raghunath Singh's (1565–1595) successors,

which was initially part of Nayagarh State became a separate kingdom in 1599 with his younger son Jadunath Singh inheriting Khandpara while his elder son Harihar Singh continuing at Nayagarh. The last ruler signed the

instrument of accession The Instrument of Accession was a legal document first introduced by the Government of India Act 1935 and used in 1947 to enable each of the rulers of the princely states under British paramountcy to join one of the new dominions of Dominion ...

to the Indian Union on 1 January 1948, merging his state into

forming a part of the

Rulers

The rulers of Nayagarh State bore the title of

Raja Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. T ...

. The emblem of the royal families of both Nayagarh and the neighbouring Khandpara State was the head of a

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

. *Baghel Singh (1480–1510 CE) *N/A *Raghunath Singh (1565–1595) *Harihar Singh *N/A *Chandrasekhar Singh Mandhata *Purushottam Singh Mandhata *Mrutyunjay Singh Mandhata (...–1784) *Binayak Singh Mandhata (1784–1825) *Braja Bandhu Singh Mandhata (1825 – 30 September 1851) *Ladhu Kishore Singh Mandhata (30 September 1851 – 1889) *Balbhadra Singh (1889–1890) *Raghunath Singh Mandhata (2 Mar 1890–4 Sep 1897) *Narayan Singh Mandhata (1897 – 7 Dec 1918) *Krushna Chandra Singh Mandhata (7 Dec 1918 – 1 January 1948)

Titular

Krushna Chandra Singh Mandhata Amarendra Kishore Singh Mandata Rameswar Prasad Singh Mandata (present)

References

Princely states of Odisha History of Odisha Nayagarh district {{india-hist-stub

History

Rulers

Titular

See also

References