Maraguda Valley

Maraguda valley lies on the Sunabeda plateau in Nuapada district, Odisha, at a historical meeting point of Magadha, Madhya Pradesh, the Deccan and Odisha. Explorations and excavations here are revealing the ruins of an early city, with religious buildings, grand dwellings, heavy fortifications and a palace complex.

Old texts give the region many names. Puranic sources place it in the Nishadha kingdom, whose capital Giriprastha seems to have been this valley; the epics call the area Kantara or Mahakantara, a name that reappears on Samudragupta's Allahabad pillar. Ashoka's rock edict counts it as Atabika territory, and Kharavela's Hathigumpha inscription knows it as a recruiting ground for soldiers. From the 3rd century AD, under the Nala kings, the valley grew into a leading city of Kosal and prospered for centuries. Many scholars identify it with the Kosal capital described by Hiuen Tsang, who travelled in India from 630 to 645, though Shripura contests the claim.