RANPUR NON SALUTE
STATE
Ranpur
State was one of
many princely non-salute states of India during
the period of the British Raj. It was one of the four native states located in present-day Nayagarh district, Odisha. The area of the state in 1931 AD was 526 Sq. Km. or 203 Sq.
Miles with a population of 47711 .
The state
was bounded in the west by Nayagarh State and in all other directions by Puri district. It was very close to the seashore but had no coastline.
Its southwestern part was thickly forested and was mostly uninhabited. The
Ranpur ruling family claimed to belong to the most ancient lineage of the
princely rulers of the Orissa
Tributary States. The
capital of the state was Ranpur, a small town near Kalupara Ghat
railway station where the Raja resided.
According to
tradition Ranpur State is of very ancient origin. The legendary date of its
foundation is placed some time in the 18th century BC when the founder, a
hunter named Basara Basuk, having defeated a giant demon named Ranasura,
established his rule in the area. The name of the place is derived from the
demon's name and was initially known as Ranasurapura, shortened to
Ranpur in the course of time.
The state
became a British
protectorate in
1803. Raja Benudar Bajradhar Narendra Mahapatra —who had been granted a sanad of adoption by the British in 1862 for his
loyalty during the Indian rebellion— claimed in 1877 that 109 generations of rulers had been
at the head of the state since the original founder 3,600 years before.
The rulers were Rajputs of uncertain origin, denying having any Khond blood, unlike most other rulers of princely states of Orissa. The last Raja of Ranpur signed the instrument of accession to the Indian Union, on 1 January 1948, merging his state into Orissa State (now Odisha).
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