Bhadrak

Bhadrak is a city and a municipality in Bhadrak district in the state of Odisha, India.Demographics, Bhadrak has a population of 107,369 and Bhadrak district has a population of 15,06,337. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Bhadrak has an average literacy rate of 82.78%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 84.65% of males and 62.85% of females literate. 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.Date of formation 1 April 1993Area 78.86km2HistoryBhadrak is an ancient land noted in legends dating from the age of the Puranas. Bhadrak's contribution to Odisha's maritime and agrarian prosperity, trade and commerce down the ages has been recorded in History. An account may be found in Abul Fazal's Ain-e-Akabari. The antiquity of this land is eloquently testified by the gigantic tank of Asura, the Buddhist relics of the Seventh and Eight Centuries discovered in Khadipada and Solampur, the villages of Dhamnagar, the Buddhist caves in Sarisua Hill near Kupari and the mysterious temple of Biranchinarayan in the village Palia, a parallel to the Sun Temple at Konark. The last battle to uphold the freedom of Odisha was fought in a village called Gohiratikiri, on the banks of the river Genguti near Dhamnagar in 1568, in which the defeated king Mukunda Dev lost his life. In 1575, the Muslim population settled down in Bhadrak following the discomfiture of the Afghans under Usman at the hand of Raja Mansingh. In the Mughal period Bhadrak remained a subah under the Nawabs of Bengal. When the imperial powers of the Mughals waned, the area consisted of some principalities like Kanika, Ampo and Agarapada with a few administrative sub-units called Chowparhies such as Kubera, Talapada, Nadigaon, Kasimpur, Kurigaon, Bindha etc., all ruled by Kshatriya Chiefs with patriotic temperament.