Chronicles of the Royal Family of Bonai (Odisha)

Whoever visits the former kingdom of Bonai, now a sub-division of Sundargarh district in north-western Orissa, and its capital and headquarter Bonaigarh, can hardly fail to notice roads jammed with trucks and dumpers (over-)loaded with ore. The area, close to the borders of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, is rich in minerals. Iron ore has been supplied to the Rourkela Steel Plant for decades, but only in the wake of the most recent industrialization the valley has been dotted with sponge iron factories. Looking at these new chimneys, one may easily pass and overlook the former fort (garh) with the palace located slightly away from the busy main road with court, high school, bus stop and market.

Venturing into the history of Bonai one encounters a variety of texts assembled for the first time in this volume. These chronicles have been produced, modified, (re-)compiled or perhaps even fabricated under specific historic circumstances — stimulated by internal and external factors. They record power configurations as well as family histories. Like Puranic genealogies as discussed by Romila Thapar, they may not be 'faithful records of the past', but rather 'memories of social relations'. The chronicles of the royal family of Bonai offer rich material on the complex relationships between overlords and 'tribal' chiefs and between gods and communities. They correspond with — reflect and were shaped by — the wider socio-religious configuration of the kingdom as visible in investiture rituals of every new Raja or recognizable in the routine in major temples such as the Lord Baneshwar temple (jacket photo), by and large, in the hands of the Bhuiyan community. Only with the blessings of the Lord and the support of the Bhuiyan chief as ally, as the chronicles state, the first Raja was able to conquer his realm — the central point of commencement for the kingdom of Bonai.

Rashmi Pramanik was awarded a doctoral degree in Anthropology in 2005 and has to her credit more than a dozen research publications apart from her two previously published books.