thumb|upright=1.2|alt=Cultivated fields and trees, with people for scale|Outskirts of [[Sambalpur Rayagada Railway line|left]]
Rayagada district is a district in the southern Odisha state in India. Rayagada became a separate district in October 1992. Its population consists mainly of tribes, primarily the Khonds and the Soras. In addition to Odia, Kui and Sora are spoken by the district's indigenous population. It was founded by Biswanatha Deba Gajapati of the Surjyabansha dynasty of Jeypore.
About
Rayagada is a District in the southern part of Odisha, India. The district came into existence on 2nd Oct,1992.
It is known as the most famous region of the state, because of its longest human history. The region has always been the Centre of attraction because of its rich and glorious historical records which is evident by copper plates, rock inscriptions, as well as the different coins that are found.
The district is well connected by the three main ways of transportation, Roadways, Airways and Railways making if accessible to the citizens from all around India.
- Airways- Nearest Airport is at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
- Railways- Well connected from the other parts of India like Delhi, Chennai, Gujarat, Kolkata, Hyderabad etc.
- Roadways- Convenient Road transport options available through the NH-43 Highway
Rayagada covers an area of , and is divided into eleven blocks. Agriculture is the chief source of income, and paddy, wheat, ragi, green and black gram, groundnut, sweet potato and maize are the district's major crops.
Administrative setup
The 11 Blocks and Tahasils in Rayagada district under two administrative Sub-Divisions are listed in the following table.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ 11 Blocks and Tahasils
! # !! Rayagada Sub-Division !! Gunupur Sub-Division
|-
| 1 || Rayagada || Gunupur
|-
| 2 || Kashipur || Gudari
|-
| 3 || Kalyansingpur || Padmapur
|-
| 4 || Kolnara || Ramanaguda
|-
| 5 || || Bissam Cuttack
|-
| 6 || || Muniguda
|-
| 7 || || Chandrapur
|}
There are 17 Police Stations under the three Police Sub-Divisions in Rayagada district. They are listed in the following table.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ 17 Police Stations
! # !! Rayagada Police Sub-Division !! Gunupur Police Sub-Division !! Bissam Cuttack Police Sub-Division
|-
| 1 || Rayagada P.S. || Gunupur P.S. || Bissam Cuttack P.S.
|-
| 2 || Seskhal P.S. || Gudari P.S. || Muniguda P.S.
|-
| 3 || Tikiri P.S. || Padmapur P.S. || Ambadola P.S.
|-
| 4 || Doraguda P.S. || Puttasing P.S. || Chandrapur P.S.
|-
| 5 || Andirakanch P.S. || ||
|-
| 6 || Kashipur P.S. || ||
|-
| 7 || Chandili P.S., Jaykaypur || ||
|-
| 8 || Kalyansingpur P.S. || ||
|-
| 9 || Energy P.S., Rayagada || ||
|}
History
In the third century BC, during the reign of Ashoka, Odisha was part of the Kalinga empire. The hilly track between the Vamshadhara and Nagavali Rivers was known for its spices. The Rastriks were defeated by Kharvela, the emperor of Kalinga, during the battle of Chawpagada.
Vishwanath Dev Gajapati (1527 - 1571 CE), the suryavanshi king of Nandapur (later Jeypore) established his capital on the bank of Nagavali and named it Rayagada or Rai-gadh. Under his rule the place flourished economically which proved beneficial to the vast kingdom that stretched from the confines of Jharkhand and West Bengal to River Godavari in south. During his reign he fought a war with Quli Qutb Mulk, the first Qutb Shahi Sultan of Golconda and successfully stopped his advance towards his kingdom. However, he had to surrender the rich fertile land located in the middle of Godavari-Krishna Delta to execute a peace treaty which made Godavari the border of the two kingdoms. Rayagada remained under the Kingdom of Jeypore until the dissolution act of 1947.
Constituencies
The district has three Odisha Legislative Assembly (Vidhan sabha) constituencies.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!No.
!Constituency
!Reservation
!Blocks
!Member
!Party
|-
!138
|Gunupur
|ST
|Gunupur, Gudari (NAC), Gunupur, Gudari, Ramanaguda, Padampur
|Satyajeet Gomango
|bgcolor="#006400" | <span style="color:white;">BJD</span>
|-
!139
|Bissam Cuttack
|ST
|Bissam Cuttack, Muniguda, Chandrapur
| Nilamadhaba Hikaka
|bgcolor="#006400" | <span style="color:white;">BJD</span>
|-
!140
|Rayagada
|ST
|Rayagada, Kashipur, Kolnara, Kalyansinghpur
|Appala swamy Kadraka
|bgcolor=#DDDDDD | Indian National Congress
|}
Rayagada district is part of the Koraput Lok Sabha constituency.
Rail transport
Rayagada railway station has direct service to Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jamshedpur, Jodhpur and New Delhi. Gunupur is also an important railway station; via Parlakhemundi, it is connected to Naupada on the main east-coast railway line from Kolkata to Chennai by a broad-gauge line which was converted from narrow gauge in 2011. The narrow-gauge line (the Paralakhemedi Light Railway, or PLR) was established by Gajpatirajas of Paralakhemundi, the former raja of Paralakhemedi, to connect his capital with Naupada. The government authorized construction in 1898, and the line was opened to traffic two years later at a cost of 700,000.
The East Coast Railway began in 1893 with construction of the Cuttack-Khurda Road-Puri line, and its subsequent link along the East Coast to Vijayawada (the junction of Southern Maratha Railway and Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway) was opened for traffic between 1893 and 1896. The railway brought service to Naupada in 1894.
Due to a policy change by the British government, the Bengal Nagpur Railway took over East Coast Railway's northern section from Vizianagaram to Cuttack, including the Puri branch line, by 23 January 1902. The PLR was also taken over by the Bengal Nagpur Railway that year. In its first few years, the PLR had incurred losses; after 1910 it began making a profit, which increased after 1924–25. This motivated the raja to extend the line to Gunupur in two phases in 1929 and 1931. There were now ten stations between Naupada and Gunupur: Tekkali, Paddasan, Temburu, Ganguvada, Patapatnam, Paralakhemedi, Kashinagar, Lihuri, Bansidhara and Palasingi. The standard PLR locomotive was a 20-ton 0-6-4 tank engine with coupled wheels and a 4.75-ton axle load.
Management of the BNR was taken over by the government of India in October 1944. On 14 April 1952, when Indian Railways was regrouped, it became part of the Eastern Railway. The merger was short-lived, however, and on 1 August 1955 it was merged with the new South Eastern Railway. A set of four postage stamps was released during the 1987 BNR centennial, one stamp featuring the PL 691 locomotive.
The foundation stone was laid for the Naupada-Gunupur gauge conversion at Naupada on 27 September 2002. On 1 April 2003, PLR became a part of the East Coast Railway. The line was closed for gauge conversion on 9 June 2004. Although the Khurda-Bolangir broad-gauge line was approved in 1995, only about half the work has been completed.
Demographics
Rayagada district had a population of 967,911 in the 2011 Census of India, roughly equal to that of Fiji or the US state of Montana. The district ranked 454th of India's 640 districts, and had a population density of . Its population growth rate from 2001 to2011 was 15.74 percent.