Norangapur

Nowrangapur lies in the uplands of southern Odisha, in a country of forests and river valleys west of Nandapur. The surrounding region was ruled by successive dynasties, including the Nalas, whose capital Puskari has been identified with the ruins at Podagada. A stone inscription there records how King Skandavarman restored the deserted town and endowed the worship of Vishnu.

The Silavamshis and later the rulers of Nandapur brought the region into their highland kingdom. In the eighteenth century Vikram Deo of Jeypore appointed his son Jagannath Deo as zamindar of Nowrangapur, giving the locality its own landed authority within the larger estate. The town’s history belongs to the changing network of chiefs and royal houses that governed the country between the eastern hills and the lands of Bastar.