14 Facts About Prataparudra Deva

Prataparudra Deva was the third Gajapati emperor of Odisha from the Suryavamsa Gajapati Empire founded by his grandfather Kapilendra Deva.

Prataparudra Deva's life was extremely occupied with overwhelming military campaigns in defense of his inherited territory from three frontal invasions by the enemy states Vijayanagar, Hussain Shahi dynasty of Bengal and Turko-Persian Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda.

Prataparudra Deva's life was heavily occupied in dealing with continuous military threats by his neighboring rulers on multiple fronts.

Prataparudra Deva reinforced the northern frontiers with more military deployment though minor skirmishes continued.

Prataparudra Deva set out with a force of 3,00,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry and 700 war elephants to confront the invading forces and was successful after rigorous fighting with the Muslim forces but lost many large portions of his territory in the south.

Gajapati Prataparudra Deva is often held responsible for losing the military status of Odisha due to his spiritual adherence, over involvement and indulgence with Sri Chaitanya.

However, Prataparudra Deva was himself a devout Vaishnava before the arrival of Chaitanya and was the head servitor of lord Jagannath as per the royal traditions of the Gajapatis of Odisha.

Prataparudra Deva was only able to see Chaitanya face to face while performing the Chera Pahara ritual during the Ratha Yatra festival of lord Jagannath following which he humbly bowed down to saints present there.

Prataparudra Deva presented the saint with a painting of Krishna so that he can meditate on it.

Prataparudra Deva had undertaken many building projects despite his troublesome life filled with battles.

Prataparudra Deva made it mandatory for only Jayadeva's Gitagovinda to be sung at while the Odia and Telugu Devadasis while they performed.

The rule of Prataparudra Deva was an era when a great social revolution in Odisha was at its zenith due to the Bhakti movement closely contested between Gaudiya and Utkaliya Vaishnavism school of thoughts.

Prataparudra Deva had 32 sons and many daughters from his multiple wives out of which Padma, Padmalaya, Ila and Mahila are known to be the Maharanis or the main queens.

Prataparudra Deva's successors were murdered by the treacherous Govinda Vidyadhara after his death.