Bolangir

Tehsil Balangir, District Balangir, Odisha, Bharat

Balangir, also known as Bolangir is a city and municipality in Balangir district in the state of Orissa.Balangir town was founded by Balaram Deo, the brother of Narasimha Deo, the 12th Raja of Patna (princely state). As Balaram Deo is known to have flourished about the middle of 16th century, the origin of the town of Balangir has also been attributed to that period. It is said that the town being founded by Balaram Deo was named after him as Balaramgarh, from which the present name Balangir has been derived. The capital of Patna (princely state) was Patnagarh, But during the middle of the 16th century Balaram Deo decided to shift the capital to 40 kilometres south of Patnagarh and he choose a Place which was in between two of the great kingdom of South Kosala i.e. Sambalpur and Kalahandi. So due to the accessible roads to Kalahandi, Sambalpur and Sonepur, Balaram Deo decided to built one fort called Balaram fort and subsequently he established the Balangir town then called as Balaram Garh. He then started building a Palace called "Sheesh Mahal" whose ruined can still be found at the Old Palace road in Balangir Town. Balangir is said to be the first planned town of orissa. The planning of Balangir town was done by Pandit Bidyaratna Vidyabhusan in whose name one govt. Sanskrit college also exists.Now Balangir is in the Koshal Movement in full-swing, demanding for a separate state for Koshala region.