When the Karrani Afghans took Cuttack in 1568, the political order that had governed Odisha since the 12th century collapsed. The rich coastal plains passed into the hands of foreign rulers, first the Afghans and later the Mughals. Yet Odisha did not lose its kings altogether. Within a few years, a new Odia kingdom had appeared at Khurda, a small town surrounded by hills and forests between Cuttack and Puri. Its rajas claimed the title of Gajapati, restored the worship of Jagannatha, and for more than two centuries remained the focus of Odia political and religious loyalty.
The formation of the Khurda kingdom is a remarkable story of survival and adaptation. Its founder, Ramachandra Deva I, did not try to reconquer the plains. Instead he built a compact, defensible state in the hills, won the support of the Jagannatha temple and the paika soldiers, and negotiated a settlement with the Mughals that gave him recognition in return for tribute. His successors defended this position, sometimes by war and sometimes by diplomacy, against Mughal governors who coveted the revenues of Puri.
The Khurda kingdom matters to historians for three reasons. First, it preserved the Gajapati institution and the ritual kingship of Jagannatha through two centuries of foreign rule, providing continuity between medieval and modern Odisha. Second, it shows how a regional Hindu kingdom could survive within the Mughal empire by combining local military strength with religious authority. Third, it was the last centre of armed resistance in Odisha: the rising of the Raja of Khurda against the British in 1804 and the Paika Rebellion of 1817 both grew out of the institutions created by Ramachandra Deva I.
Table of Contents
Background: Odisha after 1568
The political situation
After the death of Mukunda Deva, Odisha was divided. The Karrani Afghans held Cuttack and the coastal plains; local chiefs held the hill tracts; Golconda advanced along the southern coast; and the Mughals, fighting the Afghans for control of Bengal, would not establish firm control over Orissa until 1592 (see Decline of the Odisha Empire after the Gajapatis). The Jagannatha temple had been attacked by Kalapahar, and its images had been seized and burned. For the first time in centuries, there was no Odia king at Cuttack and no royal servant of Jagannatha at Puri.
The Khurda region
Khurda lay in a strategic position. It was close enough to Puri to control the pilgrim route and the temple, and close enough to Cuttack to threaten it, yet it was protected by low hills, dense forests and a network of streams that made it difficult for cavalry to operate. The region was inhabited by paika families who held land in return for military service, and by forest communities who knew the terrain. It also lay on the route between the coastal plains and the southern districts towards Ganjam. A ruler based at Khurda could defend himself in the hills while claiming authority over the sacred centre at Puri.
Sources and Historiography
The history of Khurda’s formation must be reconstructed largely from Odia sources compiled under the Khurda kings themselves, checked where possible against Persian and later British records.
| Source group | Main examples | What it gives | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temple chronicle | Madala Panji | Succession of Khurda kings; restoration of the deities; temple rituals and Navakalevara; conflicts with Mughal officers | Revised under the Khurda kings; partisan; dates sometimes inconsistent |
| Khurda chronicles | Odia historical texts on the Khurda kings, later edited as Khurda Itihasa | Origins of the dynasty; wars; forts | Late and traditional |
| Persian sources | Akbarnama, Ain-i-Akbari; later Mughal and Bengal records | Man Singh’s conquest; the status of the Khurda raja; Mughal administration | Mughal perspective; little interest in the internal history of Khurda |
| British records | Early 19th-century reports and settlement records after 1803 | Retrospective descriptions of Khurda’s institutions, forts and paikas | Written after the kingdom’s fall |
| Odia literature | Works patronised by the Khurda court | Royal image and culture | Literary, not historical |
| Modern studies | Articles in the Orissa Review and other journals; general histories of Odisha | Synthesis and analysis | Depend on the sources above |
Key documents examined
The Madala Panji. For Khurda, the temple chronicle is both the main source and a political document. It was maintained by the temple establishment that the Khurda kings protected and controlled, and it presents them as the legitimate Gajapatis. Its account of Ramachandra Deva I’s restoration of the deities is the core of that claim. Historians use it for the sequence of kings and events while allowing for its viewpoint.
The Ain-i-Akbari. Abul Fazl’s description of Orissa, compiled in the 1590s, records the Mughal revenue divisions of the province and acknowledges the existence of a Hindu raja in the Khurda region. It is the best contemporary evidence that the Mughals recognised Ramachandra Deva’s kingdom as a distinct, tributary unit.
Khurda chronicles. Odia traditions about the origins of the Khurda kings were collected and later edited. They preserve stories about Ramachandra Deva’s family, his imprisonment and release, his choice of Khurda as a capital and the building of its forts. They are valuable for the self-image of the dynasty but must be used with caution for dates.
Early British accounts. After the British conquest of 1803, officials described the Khurda kingdom, its forts, its paika militia and its relationship with the temple. These accounts, written by the enemies who annexed the kingdom, are nevertheless important for understanding the institutions that Ramachandra Deva I had founded.
How scholars have studied Khurda
Colonial writers, especially Andrew Stirling (1825) and W.W. Hunter (1872), described Khurda as the last refuge of Odia royalty and drew heavily on the Madala Panji.
Early 20th-century historians, including R.D. Banerji, reconstructed the political narrative of Khurda within the history of Mughal Orissa.
Odia historians have produced the most detailed studies, editing Khurda chronicles, analysing the paika system and the temple’s administration, and placing Khurda at the centre of Odia resistance to foreign rule. Their views are discussed in Section 5.
Recent work has focused on the Khurda kingdom as an example of how regional states survived within the Mughal empire, on its ritual sovereignty through the Jagannatha temple, and on its role in the origins of the Paika Rebellion of 1817.
1. The Founding: Ramachandra Deva I (1568–1607)
Origins of the founder
The origins of Ramachandra Deva I are described differently in the sources, but they agree that he belonged to the Bhoi family that had seized the throne in 1541 under Govinda Vidyadhara.
- The Danai Vidyadhara tradition. Several Odia accounts describe Ramachandra as the son of Danai (Danardana) Vidyadhara, a member of the Bhoi family who held high office under the last Bhoi and Chalukya kings and who lost his position in the upheavals of the 1550s and 1560s. On this view Ramachandra rebuilt his family’s lost influence and turned it into a new kingdom.
- The Ramai Routray tradition. Other accounts, followed by the historyofodisha.in study of the Bhoi dynasty, identify Ramachandra with a commander known as Ramai Routray, who had been imprisoned in the south, at Rajahmundry, and who was released around 1568. Returning to Odisha in the chaos after Mukunda Deva’s death, he established himself at Khurda.
The two traditions are not necessarily incompatible: both describe a man from a family of senior Bhoi officers, with military experience and connections in the south, who appeared in the Khurda region at the moment of the old kingdom’s collapse.
Establishing power at Khurda
Ramachandra Deva chose Khurda for strategic reasons. The hills and forests protected him from the Afghan cavalry that dominated the plains, while the nearby paika villages provided soldiers. He built or strengthened a network of forts (garhs) in the region, of which the hill fortress of Barunei near Khurda became the most famous. He won over local chiefs and paika leaders, and he gradually extended his authority over the area between the Mahanadi and the Chilika lake.
During the Afghan period (1568–1592), Ramachandra Deva appears to have survived by a combination of resistance and accommodation. The Afghans controlled the plains and the main roads, but they could not easily penetrate the Khurda hills, and they had more urgent concerns in their wars with the Mughals. This allowed the new kingdom to take root.
The restoration of Jagannatha
Ramachandra Deva’s most important act, and the foundation of his legitimacy, was the restoration of the worship of Jagannatha. After Kalapahar’s attack, the images of the deities had been destroyed, and according to tradition a devotee named Bisar Mohanty had saved the sacred substance (Brahma) and hidden it at Kujang in the Mahanadi delta. Ramachandra Deva had the substance brought back, ordered new images to be carved from sacred daru (neem) wood in the traditional manner, and installed them in the temple at Puri, reviving the full cycle of rituals.
For this act he was honoured as Dvitiya Indradyumna, “the second Indradyumna”, after the legendary king who first established the worship of Jagannatha. The title placed him in direct succession to the founders of the cult and made him, in the eyes of priests, pilgrims and the people, the true Gajapati, whatever the political realities.
Recognition by Man Singh
The decisive step in the formation of the kingdom came with the Mughal conquest of Orissa under Raja Man Singh in 1590–1592. Man Singh needed allies against the Afghans and a way to govern a province whose people were deeply attached to Jagannatha. Ramachandra Deva, for his part, needed protection from the Afghans and recognition of his position.
The result was a settlement. Ramachandra Deva accepted Mughal overlordship and agreed to pay tribute. In return, Man Singh recognised him as raja of Khurda and confirmed his authority over the Jagannatha temple and a group of estates and forts. According to the account on historyofodisha.in, Man Singh marked the appointment by presenting him with the khadi prasada of Jagannatha during the Chandana Yatra at Puri. The same account states that Ramachandra Deva controlled “up to thirty-two zamindaries”, with 73 forts in the Khurda region alone, and that his territory extended from the Mahanadi in the north to the border of Khimidi in the south.
The achievement of Ramachandra Deva I
By his death in 1607, Ramachandra Deva had created a new Odia kingdom out of the ruins of the old. It was small compared with the Gajapati empire, and it was a Mughal tributary, but it had three solid foundations: a defensible territory with its own soldiers, the religious authority of the Jagannatha temple, and recognition from the Mughal empire. These foundations allowed the kingdom to survive for two centuries.
2. Consolidation and Survival (1607–1736)
Ramachandra Deva’s successors faced a recurring problem. The Mughal governors of Orissa, based at Cuttack, regarded Khurda as a tributary estate and the Jagannatha temple as a source of revenue and, at times, a target. The rajas of Khurda regarded themselves as Gajapatis and the temple as their sacred trust. The history of the kingdom between 1607 and 1736 is largely the history of this tension, marked by periods of cooperation, open war and the repeated removal of the deities from Puri for safety.
The successors of Ramachandra Deva I
| King | Reign (approx.) | Main features |
|---|---|---|
| Purushottama Deva | 1607–1622 | Conflict with Mughal officers who attacked Puri; deities removed for safety |
| Narasimha Deva | 1622–1647 | Continued struggle with Mughal governors; consolidation of the forts |
| Balabhadra Deva | 1648–1659 | Relative stability; restoration of temple rituals |
| Mukunda Deva I | 1659–1688 | Long reign; relations with Mughal governors under Aurangzeb |
| Divyasimha Deva I | 1688–1714 | Crisis under Aurangzeb; temple worship disrupted; recovery after 1707 |
| Harekrishna Deva | 1714–1719 | Short reign |
| Gopinatha Deva | 1719–1727 | Short reign; growing pressure from the Bengal nawabs’ deputies |
| Ramachandra Deva II | 1727–1736 | Conflict with the deputy governor; capture and conversion; end of the first phase of Khurda’s power |
The early 17th century: Mughal pressure on Puri
Under Purushottama Deva, the Mughal governors and their officers repeatedly entered the Puri region, partly to collect revenue and partly to plunder the wealth of the temple. Odia sources describe attacks by Mughal commanders, the hiding of the deities in places of safety, and the king’s efforts to defend the temple and to negotiate with the governors. Purushottama Deva and his successor Narasimha Deva were at times forced to accept humiliating terms, but they preserved both the kingdom and the cult.
The mid-17th century: stability and ritual
Under Balabhadra Deva and Mukunda Deva I, relations with the Mughal administration became more stable. The kings concentrated on the temple’s rituals and festivals, including the Navakalevara renewal of the deities, and on the administration of their estates and forts. The long reign of Mukunda Deva I was a period of relative security for the kingdom.
The crisis under Aurangzeb
Under Divyasimha Deva I, the kingdom faced the hostility of the emperor Aurangzeb, whose orders against major Hindu temples reached Orissa. According to Odia tradition, the Jagannatha temple was closed for a period and the regular worship disrupted, while the king and the temple servants protected the deities. Worship was fully restored after Aurangzeb’s death in 1707.
Ramachandra Deva II and the end of the first phase
In the 1720s and 1730s, as Mughal central authority weakened, Orissa was governed by deputies of the nawabs of Bengal. Ramachandra Deva II came into conflict with the deputy governor, was captured and, according to tradition, converted to Islam while a prisoner. His conversion created a crisis for the temple, which could not accept a Muslim as its first servant, and it marked the end of the first, formative phase of Khurda’s history. Later rajas of Khurda continued the dynasty, but under the Marathas from 1751 they lost much of their control over the temple, and in 1804 the kingdom was annexed by the British (see the epilogue in Section 6).
3. The Structure of the Kingdom
Territory
At its height under Ramachandra Deva I, the kingdom extended from the Mahanadi in the north towards the border of Khimidi in the south, including the hill country around Khurda, the Puri region and the western shores of the Chilika lake. Its core was the Khurda tract itself, which the British later recognised as a distinct region with its own landholding and military customs. Around this core lay a ring of dependent estates held by chiefs who acknowledged the raja of Khurda as their overlord. Under the Mughals the raja’s authority over these chiefs was recognised, though it fluctuated with the strength of individual kings.
Forts
The kingdom’s security rested on its forts (garhs). These were usually built of earth, stone and timber on hills or in forest clearings, controlling passes and river crossings. The most important was the hill fortress of Barunei near Khurda, the last refuge of the kings. Other forts named in Odia sources include Balabhadrapur, Ghatikia, Kalupada, Kanjia, Rathipur and Rameswar. The historyofodisha.in study of the dynasty refers to 73 forts in the Khurda region. Together they formed a defensive network that made the hill kingdom very difficult to conquer.
The paika militia
The paikas were the backbone of the kingdom. They were peasant-soldiers who held land, often free of rent, in return for military service, and who were organised in villages under their own officers. British and Odia accounts describe three broad groups:
- the Paharis, who guarded forts and royal property;
- the Banuas, armed with matchlocks, who formed the main fighting force in campaigns;
- the Dhenkiyas, archers and swordsmen who also served in the field.
The paikas were commanded by local leaders and, at the highest level, by the Bakshi, the commander-in-chief of the raja’s forces. Their loyalty to the raja and to Jagannatha, and their attachment to their service lands, made them a formidable force in the hills. When the British abolished their privileges after 1803, they became the leaders of the great rising of 1817.
Administration
The raja governed through a small court of officers, including the royal priest (Rajaguru), the Bakshi, revenue officials drawn from the Karana community, and the managers of the temple. The estates of the kingdom were held by chiefs and landholders who paid revenue or rendered service. The administration was simpler than that of the old Gajapati empire, but it was well suited to a compact hill kingdom.
Economy
The kingdom’s economy combined rice cultivation in the valleys and the plains near Puri, forest products from the hills, fishing and salt production around the Chilika lake, and the income associated with the Jagannatha temple and the pilgrim traffic to Puri. Control of the temple’s lands and endowments was both a source of wealth and a cause of conflict with the Mughal governors.
The raja and the Jagannatha temple
The heart of the kingdom’s identity was its relationship with Jagannatha. The raja of Khurda was the adya sevaka, the first servant of the god, who performed the sweeping of the chariots at the Rathayatra and presided over the temple’s administration. He appointed or confirmed temple officials, supervised the Navakalevara renewals of the deities, and protected the temple’s lands. The temple in turn gave the raja a legitimacy that no Mughal grant could provide: in the eyes of pilgrims and the people of Odisha he was the Gajapati, the successor of the Gangas and the Suryavamsis.
Culture
The Khurda court patronised Odia and Sanskrit literature, temple music and dance, and religious scholarship. Tradition associates the gotipua dance, performed by boys dressed as girls, with the period of the early Khurda kings, and Odia sources mention works composed under their patronage, such as the Durgastab Chandrika. The court at Khurda and the temple at Puri together kept the classical culture of the Gajapati age alive under foreign rule.
4. Case Studies
Case Study 1: Why Khurda?
The question. Why did the new Odia kingdom take shape at Khurda rather than at Cuttack, the old capital, or in one of the larger feudatory states?
The evidence. The geography of the Khurda tract, its hills, forests and streams, made it difficult for cavalry armies to operate. Its paika villages supplied soldiers. Its position between Cuttack and Puri allowed a ruler to defend himself while controlling access to the Jagannatha temple. The Afghans, and later the Mughals, were based in the open plains and could not easily project power into the hills.
Assessment. Khurda offered exactly what a successor kingdom needed after 1568: security, soldiers and proximity to the sacred centre. Ramachandra Deva’s choice of Khurda reflected a realistic recognition that the plains could not be held against the cavalry of the north, and that legitimacy depended on Puri rather than on Cuttack.
Case Study 2: Restoring Jagannatha, creating legitimacy
The act. Ramachandra Deva’s restoration of the deities after Kalapahar’s attack involved recovering the sacred substance, carving new images and reinstalling them in the Puri temple with full ritual.
The meaning. The restoration did more than revive a cult. It made Ramachandra Deva the protector of Jagannatha at a moment when no other Odia ruler could claim that role, and it gave him the title Dvitiya Indradyumna. In Odia political culture, where the king ruled as the servant of Jagannatha, this was the strongest claim to kingship available. It allowed a member of a usurping family to become the accepted Gajapati.
Assessment. The legitimacy of the Khurda kings rested more on the temple than on military power or Mughal recognition. This is why later conflicts between Khurda and the Mughal governors so often centred on control of the temple, and why the conversion of Ramachandra Deva II was such a crisis.
Case Study 3: A Hindu kingdom inside the Mughal empire
The settlement. Around 1592 Raja Man Singh recognised Ramachandra Deva as raja of Khurda, confirmed his authority over the temple and a group of estates and forts, and received his submission and tribute.
Comparison. The arrangement resembled the way the Mughals incorporated other regional rulers, especially in Rajasthan and the Deccan: local kings kept their lands and religious roles in return for loyalty and tribute. Man Singh, himself a Rajput king serving the Mughals, was well placed to understand the value of such an arrangement.
The tension. Unlike the great Rajput houses, however, the raja of Khurda was not closely integrated into the Mughal nobility. The governors at Cuttack often treated Khurda as a revenue estate and the temple as a source of income, leading to repeated conflict.
Assessment. Khurda survived as a tributary kingdom because the Mughals found it useful and because it was hard to conquer, but its position always depended on the balance of power with the governors at Cuttack.
Case Study 4: The conversion of Ramachandra Deva II
The event. In the 1730s Ramachandra Deva II came into conflict with the deputy governor of Orissa, was captured and, according to tradition, embraced Islam while a prisoner.
The consequences. The temple establishment could not accept a convert as the first servant of Jagannatha. The crisis showed both the strength and the vulnerability of the Khurda system: the raja’s power depended on his ritual role, and that role could be destroyed by a single political defeat. Later rajas of Khurda continued the line, but the episode weakened the dynasty’s hold over the temple and paved the way for Maratha control of its administration after 1751.
Assessment. The episode marks the end of the formative period of the Khurda kingdom. It shows that the kingdom created by Ramachandra Deva I could survive military pressure but was vulnerable to any blow to the sacred kingship on which it was built.
5. Odia Historians on Khurda
For Odia historians, Khurda occupies a special place. It was the kingdom that kept the Gajapati tradition alive after 1568, the guardian of Jagannatha, and the last centre of armed resistance to colonial rule. Their writing has sought both to reconstruct its history from fragmentary sources and to explain its meaning for Odia identity.
Harekrushna Mahtab, in his History of Orissa, presented the Khurda kings as the custodians of Odia sovereignty and culture under foreign rule. He emphasised Ramachandra Deva I’s restoration of Jagannatha and the role of Khurda in the later resistance to the British.
Krishna Chandra Panigrahi and other critical historians examined the Khurda chronicles and the Madala Panji alongside Persian sources, drawing attention to the tributary status of the kingdom under the Mughals and to the gap between the kings’ ritual claims and their political power.
Kedarnath Mahapatra and other scholars who worked on the Odia chronicles of Khurda, later published as Khurda Itihasa, made the internal sources of the kingdom available and reconstructed its genealogy and institutions.
Historians of the Paika Rebellion, including many Odia scholars of the colonial period, have traced the paika system, the forts and the authority of the Bakshi back to the kingdom founded by Ramachandra Deva I, showing how the institutions of 1568–1600 shaped the rising of 1817.
Saroj Kumar Panda, in “Cultural Profile of Khurda Kingdom” (Orissa Review, May 2005), describes Ramachandra Deva as the son of Danardana Vidyadhara who “founded a new kingdom and a new dynasty”, lists the principal forts of the kingdom, and surveys its cultural achievements, including the restoration of the deities and the patronage of literature.
On historyofodisha.in, Brajabandhu Mahanta, in “The Bhoi Dynasty of Khurda” (2022), gives a list of the Khurda kings from Ramachandra Deva I (1568–1607) to Ramachandra Deva II (1727–1736), identifies Ramachandra Deva I with Ramai Routray, describes his control of thirty-two zamindaris and 73 forts, his appointment by Man Singh and his restoration of the deities, and notes that the Jagannatha temple is still administered under the Gajapati of the Bhoi line.
Main debates
| Question | Main positions |
|---|---|
| Who was Ramachandra Deva I? | Son of Danai (Danardana) Vidyadhara (several Odia accounts); identical with the commander Ramai Routray released from imprisonment in the south (other accounts) |
| When was the kingdom founded? | 1568, with Ramachandra Deva’s establishment at Khurda (most accounts); c. 1592, with Mughal recognition (some, stressing legal status) |
| Was Khurda a true successor of the Gajapati empire? | Yes, in ritual and in Odia memory; in political terms a Mughal tributary |
| What was the basis of its survival? | Geography and the paika militia; the legitimacy of the Jagannatha temple; Mughal recognition. Most historians combine all three |
| What ended its formative phase? | The capture and conversion of Ramachandra Deva II in the 1730s, followed by Maratha rule from 1751 |
6. Assessment and Epilogue
Assessment
The formation of the Khurda kingdom was a creative response to catastrophe. Ramachandra Deva I could not restore the empire of the Gajapatis, but he created something that lasted: a compact, defensible state in the hills, a militia of loyal paikas, and above all a claim to sacred kingship based on his restoration of Jagannatha. His settlement with Man Singh gave this kingdom a recognised place within the Mughal empire. For more than two centuries the raja of Khurda remained, for the people of Odisha, the Gajapati and the first servant of Jagannatha.
The kingdom’s strengths were also its limits. Its power depended on the hills and the paikas, which could defend it but not expand it, and on the ritual authority of the temple, which could be shaken by a single political defeat, as the conversion of Ramachandra Deva II showed. It survived as long as its neighbours found it useful or difficult to destroy.
Epilogue: Khurda under the Marathas and the British
After 1751, when the Marathas of Nagpur took over Orissa, the rajas of Khurda lost much of their control over the Jagannatha temple’s administration and parts of their territory, though they kept their ritual role. In 1803 the British East India Company conquered Orissa. The raja of Khurda, Mukunda Deva II, and his minister Jayi Rajaguru rose against the British in 1804 when promised territories were not restored. The fortress of Barunei fell, the raja was captured and his kingdom annexed, and Jayi Rajaguru was executed. The paikas of Khurda, deprived of their service lands, rose again in 1817 under the Bakshi Jagabandhu in the Paika Rebellion, the last great armed rising of the old order. The raja’s descendants were later allowed to live at Puri and to perform their duties in the temple, and the Gajapati of Puri remains the first servant of Jagannatha today.
Glossary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Adya sevaka | “First servant”; the Gajapati’s role in the Jagannatha temple |
| Bakshi | Commander-in-chief of the Khurda forces |
| Banua | A paika armed with a matchlock |
| Barunei | Hill fortress near Khurda, the kingdom’s last stronghold |
| Bhoi dynasty | Dynasty founded by Govinda Vidyadhara in 1541; ruled Khurda from 1568 |
| Brahma | The sacred substance within Jagannatha’s image |
| Daru | The sacred wood from which the images of the deities are carved |
| Dhenkiya | A paika serving as archer or swordsman |
| Dvitiya Indradyumna | “The second Indradyumna”; title of Ramachandra Deva I |
| Garh | A fort |
| Gotipua | A dance performed by boys dressed as girls, associated with the Jagannatha tradition |
| Khadi prasada | A sacred food offering of Jagannatha |
| Navakalevara | The periodic renewal of the wooden images of the deities |
| Pahari | A paika assigned to guard forts and royal property |
| Paika | A peasant-soldier holding land in return for military service |
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who founded the Khurda kingdom? Ramachandra Deva I, a member of the Bhoi family, established himself at Khurda around 1568, after the death of Mukunda Deva and the Afghan conquest of Cuttack. He ruled until 1607.
2. Why was Khurda chosen as the capital? Its hills and forests protected it from the cavalry armies of the Afghans and Mughals, its paika villages provided soldiers, and it was close to Puri and the Jagannatha temple.
3. Why is Ramachandra Deva I called the “second Indradyumna”? Because he restored the worship of Jagannatha after the deities had been destroyed by Kalapahar, installing new images with the recovered sacred substance. Indradyumna was the legendary founder of the cult.
4. What was the relationship between Khurda and the Mughals? Around 1592 Raja Man Singh recognised Ramachandra Deva as raja of Khurda and guardian of the temple. Khurda paid tribute to the Mughals, but its relations with the governors at Cuttack were often tense.
5. What were the paikas? Peasant-soldiers who held land in return for military service. They formed the army of Khurda and later led the Paika Rebellion of 1817.
6. How many kings ruled Khurda in its formative period? Nine kings, from Ramachandra Deva I (1568–1607) to Ramachandra Deva II (1727–1736), according to the list followed in this article.
7. What happened to the Khurda kingdom in the end? It came under Maratha overlordship after 1751 and was annexed by the British after the rising of 1804. The Gajapati of Puri, descended from the Khurda kings, remains the first servant of Jagannatha.
How to Cite This Article
Mahanta, Brajabandhu (ed.). “Formation of the Khurda Kingdom.” History of Odisha, 2026. https://historyofodisha.com/formation-of-khurda-kingdom/ (accessed [date]).
References
Primary sources and editions
- Abul Fazl. Ain-i-Akbari. Trans. H. Blochmann and H.S. Jarrett. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1873–1894.
- Abul Fazl. Akbarnama. Trans. H. Beveridge. 3 vols. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1897–1921.
- Mohanty, Artaballabha (ed.). Madala Panji. Cuttack: Prachi Samiti, 1940.
- Khurda Itihasa (Odia chronicles of the Khurda kings), modern edition.
Secondary works
- Banerji, R.D. History of Orissa. 2 vols. Calcutta: R. Chatterjee, 1930–31.
- Hunter, W.W. Orissa. 2 vols. London: Smith, Elder, 1872.
- Stirling, Andrew. “An Account, Geographical, Statistical and Historical, of Orissa Proper, or Cuttack.” Asiatic Researches 15 (1825).
- Eschmann, Anncharlott, Hermann Kulke and Gaya Charan Tripathi (eds.). The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa. New Delhi: Manohar, 1978.
Works by Odia historians
- Mahanta, Brajabandhu. “The Bhoi Dynasty of Khurda.” History of Odisha (historyofodisha.in), 2022.
- Mahanta, Brajabandhu. “The Chalukya Dynasty: Mukunda Harichandan (1560–1568 CE).” History of Odisha (historyofodisha.in), 2017.
- Mahtab, Harekrushna. History of Orissa. 2 vols. Cuttack: Prajatantra Prachar Samiti, 1959–60.
- Panda, Saroj Kumar. “Cultural Profile of Khurda Kingdom.” Orissa Review, May 2005.
- Panigrahi, Krishna Chandra. History of Orissa (Hindu Period). Cuttack: Kitab Mahal, 1981.