Raja Sir Basudev Sudhal Dev (1850–1903) was the king of the Princely State of Bamra, also known as Bamanda. He was a member of the Ganga Dynasty. He was a progressive man. He introduced many reforms in the fields of education, communication, and literature.
He was born on 16 May 1850 to Harihar Dev. In 1865, he was adopted by his uncle Raja Braja Sunder Dev, who was without a male heir. Basudev Sudhal Dev ascended the throne in 1869 at the age of nineteen. He was well educated in Odia, Sanskrit, and English. Due to his education, he became an enlightened ruler.
In 1900, he introduced a telephone line from his capital, Deogarh, to Barkote (126 kms). He started a postal system in his state. He was a lover of education. He increased the number of primary schools. In 1882, he founded Raja Basudev High School in Deogarh, affiliated with Calcutta University. He established the Bellam Agricultural Laboratory for scientific farming.
Basudev Sudhal Dev was a man of letters.
He was a poet and patron. In 1886, he established Jagannath Ballav Press for literary revival.
He started a weekly newspaper called Sambalpur Hitaisini to provide a platform for writers and poets. Hitaisini did yeoman service to preserve the Odia language. Sudhal Dev’s Chitrotpala was the most famous kavya.
Basudev was awarded many honours by the British Government:
- CIE – Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire.
- KCIE – Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire.
- Raja – The title of Raja was formally recognised as hereditary for his family in 1891.
Sudhal Dev married Girija Kumari of Kalahandi in 1871. He had eight sons and eleven daughters. Basudev died in Calcutta on 19 November 1903. His eldest son, Satchidananda Tribhuban Dev, became the king. He continued his father’s reforms.
Bamra State was founded around 1360 by Gangadher of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. The golden era of Bamra State was the reign of Raja Basudev Sudhal Dev. He improved education, literature, and infrastructure. After independence, it merged with the Indian Union in 1948. Bamanda was one of the Tributary States under the British Raj. Bamra is situated in a hilly forest area between the Mahanadi Valley and the Chhotnagpur Plateau. The river Brahmani flows through it. The state was transformed into a modern, prosperous state in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Sudhal Dev was an enlightened ruler. He was ahead of his time. His outlook was modern like Kemal Pasha of Turkey. Raja Sudhal Dev was liked by the British, not by sycophancy but by his reformative works. He was an able administrator. Rarely do we find such a Raja who himself was a poet. His Chitrotpala kavya, relating to the river Mahanadi, earned him fame. He patronised poets like Radhanath Roy with the title Kabibara.
Raja Basudev Sudhal Dev may be called a philosopher king. Is it not?
(The views expressed are the writer’s own.)
Radhakanta Seth is a Former Income tax officer in Sambalpur. He is a Freelance writer and his articles have been published in some Oriya dailies like Sambad, Samaj, Dharitri and English dailies like The Telegraph and in a sociological journal ‘Folklore’ published from Kolkata.
(Photo has collected from net )