Khariar

Khariar belonged to the Chauhan political world of western Odisha. Around the turn of the seventeenth century, Gopal Rai, a member of the ruling family of Patna, established a separate line of rulers here. District histories connect the early estate with Tannote and the strongholds of Goragarh, Kholagarh and Komnagarh. They also describe the addition of Khariar lands through marriage with the ruling house of Jeypur.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, land grants to Brahmins, religious institutions and members of the ruling family helped organise authority in the estate's plains. Komnagarh served as a capital in its earlier development. Wider conquests subsequently altered Khariar's political position. It came under the Marathas in 1741, and British occupation followed in 1818. The local ruling lineage thus continued within changing relations of superiority, while grants and fortified centres linked dynastic authority to particular lands and communities.