Padmapur, Rayagada

Padmapur is a village in the Rayagada district of Odisha, India. It is the most populated village and one of the identified tourist centers of the district. A hillock adjoins the village to its northern side to enhance the scenic beauty of the place. A 7th century inscription found here, in the Nilakantheswar Temple (a religious place i.e. the shrine of Lord Manikeswar Shiva), indicates that the Jagamanda hill, located close by, once housed the monastery of the famous Buddhist logician-philosopher Dharmakirti. Padmapur happens to be the birthplace of the communist leader Nagbhushan Pattnaik.Important personalities born at and near Padmapur Nagbhushan Patnaik was born at Padmapur on November 27, 1934, to Srimati Rajalaxmi Patnaik and Sri Ramamurthy Patnaik. He completed his primary education at Padmapur and later the family left for Gunupur. Nagbhushan was the symbol of revolutionary spirit of the Naxalbari movement. Very few people knew that he was a poet also. On October 9, 1998, Comrade Patnaik breathed his last in a private hospital at Chennai due to renal failure. Arjuna Gamang, was born in a tribal family on July 18, 1933, at Godiabandha, a village near Padmapur. The famous Socratic definition of sin- "Sin is ignorance" was instrumental in turning his life from a common carpenter to a spiritual preacher. He founded the spiritual forum "DIBYA DARSHAN SANGHA " and taught his followers the secret of a divine life;" If you desire liberation, acquire self-knowledge". Pandita Sabara Mangei Gamang, the inventor of Soura (Sora) lipi (script) i.e. Akshara Brahma, was born at Marichaguda, a village near Padmapur. Dr.Giridhara Gamang born on April 8, 1943, at Dibirisingi, a village near Padmapur, was the M.P. of I.N.C. and one of the former chief ministers of Odisha. He was awarded honorary doctorate degree by one university of Dehradun for his exceptional efficiency in playing one musical instrument called -Dhampo; mostly used in Rayagada district.