Naga

The Naga dynasty of Kalahandi ruled the hills of western Odisha from Junagarh, also called Kalahandinagara. Naga chiefs had ruled parts of the region since the eleventh century; in the twelfth century their realm became the Kamala Mandala, a feudatory province of the Eastern Ganga kings.

Court tradition says Raghunath Sai, a prince of the Naga house of Chota Nagpur, married the last Ganga governor's daughter and took the throne, though historians place the change in the fifteenth century.

The Naga kings were crowned with the participation of the Khond chief, who seated the new raja on his lap. They claimed eighteen hill forts under the goddess Manikeswari. After the fourteenth century they transferred allegiance to the Suryavamsi Gajapatis and ruled independently from 1568. In 1788 the Marathas of Nagpur made Kalahandi a tributary, confirming Raja Purushottama Deo on its throne.