Angul

Angul, also called Anugola, lies in the lowland and forest country of central Odisha. Its surrounding villages combined rice cultivation with use of upland woods, and local rulers drew revenue from both land and forest products. Forests supplied timber and game, while rice fields fed the villages. The region belonged to a wider frontier of petty rajas and tribal communities between the coastal Orissan kingdoms and the highlands to the west.

During the eighteenth century, the Marathas of Nagpur extended their authority over Orissa and its local estates. Angul’s ruler retained a hereditary position while paying tribute to stronger powers. After the Second Anglo-Maratha War, Orissa passed to the British in 1803. Angul’s chief then entered a tributary agreement with the East India Company, accepting protection and an annual payment.

Somanath Singh Jagdev ruled the Angul estate from 1813. The company left much local administration in the raja’s hands, but its officers and revenue demands increasingly intervened in the estate. The settlement remained a modest rice-market centre within a landscape of forests and small kingdoms.