DHENKANAL

The district has a pre historic habitations. How ever the pre-historic facts are shrowed in oblivion.But the Nasik Rock inscription shows that , during 2nd C.AD, Dhenkanal was a part of the Sattabahana empire. In the 3rd & 4th C.AD, it was a part of the Gupta empire.In the 6th &7th C.AD the region remained under the sway of the Bhauma Karas. The Sulki dynasty ruled over some part of Dhenkanal in 8th& 9th C.AD. The somavansis ruled over the part of this region .After them the Ganga vansis occupied the area and drove away the Stamvas from the western part of the district. When the Suryavansis emerged in the political field of Odisha, by that time Dhenkanal was scattered in many a small kingdoms.The ancient capital Karamul had 7 kosas only in radius. By 16th AD , a tribal chief namely ‘Dhenka’ was ruling over Ghumuranali, Dudianali &Kantanali. He was a shabara and was ferocious. However ,Sridhar Bhanja of Besalia defeated and killed him in the battle. His kingdom was annexed. He named the kingdom “Dhenkanal” after the shabara chief ‘Dhenka’ .Subsequently , Hari Singh Vidyadhar who was a commander of Gajapati Pratprudra deva defeated the Bhanja kings and occupied Dhenkanal and Karamul ,its capital in 1529 AD. Subsequently, the capital was shifted from Karamul to Dhenkapidha and the kingdom was named Dhenkanal.

The Climate of the Dhenkanal District is hot with high humidity during April and may and cold during December and January. The monsoon generally breaks during the month of June, Average annual rainfall of the District was 1741.5 m.m in 2005 which is higher than the normal rainfall (1421.1)

Dhenkanal: The head quarter town of the district Dhenkanal is ideally located of National high way No: 55 Connecting Cuttack with Sambalpur. The approach to Dhenkanal district is as follows. Air:- The nearest airport for approaching the places of interest in the district of Dhenkanal is at Bhubaneswar(99 Km) which is connected with New Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Nagpur by boeing flights. Rail:- Dhenkanal Railway station on S.E. Railway. Road : – 99 km. From Bhubaneswar on N.H. No. 55 Regular bus services connect Dhenkanal with Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Raipur, etc. Kapilas:- Rail – Dhenkanal Railway Station Road – 26 km. From Dhenkanal, regular bus services are available. Joranda :- Rail :– Dhenkanal Railway Station. Road :– 24 km. From Dhenkanal, regular bus services operate between Dhenkanal and Joranda.