Mayurbhanj district is one of the 30 districts in Odisha state in eastern India. It is the largest district of Odisha by area. Its headquarters are at Baripada. Other major towns are Rairangpur, Karanjia and Bahalda. , it is the third-most-populous district of Odisha (out of 30), after Ganjam and Cuttack. Etymology The name of the district is a portmanteau of Mayura (meaning peacock in Odia) and Bhanja, the name of the two ruling dynasty of the district till 1949. It is believed that the Mayura was the name of another dynasty that merged with the Bhanjas sometime around the 14th century. The peacock motif was later adopted by the Bhanjas and featured on the Mayurbhanj coat of arms. The Mayurbhanj alternative spellings were noted as Mohurbunge and Morbhanj in many British India records. History The Bhanja family who ruled Mayurbhanj State are closely associated with the district's history. They probably displaced an earlier ruling family with the same name who had ruled from Khiching after the fall of the Buddhist Bhauma-Kara dynasty. The progenitor of the present day Bhanjas shifted the capital from Khiching to Haripur after the kingdom had been plundered by Feroz Shah Tughlaq. Mayurbhanj was an extensive domain at the time of the Mughal conquest in 1592 and covered present day Kendujhar, Balasore, Singhbhum and large parts of undivided Midnapore districts as well. Raja Krushna Chandra Bhanja took advantage of the disturbed conditions around the last years of Shah Jahan and further enlarged his territories. He was however defeated and executed by Khan e Dauran, the general of Emperor Aurangzeb. During the expansion of the Maratha Empire, the kingdom lost all its territories along the coast as well as the Nilgiri State. The loss of the sea ports along the Balasore coast severely affected the state finances. It was around this time that the capital was shifted to Baripada. In 1803, the state submitted to the British who had conquered coastal Odisha and the state was recognised as a feudatory state – a position midway between a princely state and a Zamindari. Further territorial concessions were made to the British in the 19th century when large parts of present-day West Singhbhum district were handed over in the consequence of persistent Santal rebellions. The state was modernised during the short reign of Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanj Deo in the early 20th century. The railway, primary education, municipal