Buxi Jagabandhu

The British stripped a hereditary militia of its land grants, since it no longer needed their service. Its own commander-in-chief responded by leading Odisha‘s biggest revolt against colonial rule, four decades before 1857.

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The Paik Rebellion Need to Know

• Buxi Jagabandhu, full name Jagabandhu Bidyadhara Mohapatra Bhramarbar Ray, was born around 1773 near Khurda, Odisha.
• He held the hereditary post of Buxi, or commander-in-chief, of the Khurda Raja’s Paik militia.
• A British land settlement stripped the Paiks of their traditional rent-free military-service lands. In 1814, the British also confiscated Jagabandhu’s own family estate.
• In March 1817, Kandha tribal fighters crossed into Khurda and were joined by Jagabandhu’s Paiks. The combined force burned the Banpur police station and marched on Khurda town, which they briefly occupied that April.
• Jagabandhu evaded capture for years, moving through Odisha’s forests and hills.
• He surrendered to the British in May 1825, under negotiated terms that reportedly included a monthly pension and residence in Cuttack.
• He died in Cuttack, on 24 January 1829.

Roots of the Revolt Good to Know

• The British annexed Odisha in 1803, after defeating the Marathas. They promised Khurda’s king compensation and the return of four parganas, a promise never fully kept.
• The Paiks were a hereditary landholding militia, not regular soldiers. Losing their service lands hit their livelihood directly, not just their status.
• An earlier Khurda royal custodian, Jayee Rajguru, led a smaller armed protest against British policy in 1804. He was executed in 1806, a direct precursor to Jagabandhu’s larger 1817 revolt.
• Sources differ on Jagabandhu’s status in his final years at Cuttack. Some describe formal imprisonment; others describe a pensioned house arrest that ended only with his death.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. The Paik Rebellion of 1817 began on 29 March, when 400 Paiks stormed which target?

The Cuttack treasury

The Khurda royal palace

The Puri Jagannath Temple

The Banpur police station

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A Staged Uprising Great to Know

• Some Odisha historians describe the Paik Rebellion as the region’s own “first war of independence,” predating 1857 by four decades. This label remains a regional framing, not the standard national usage of that phrase.
• The revolt’s root cause was economic, not just political. Stripping hereditary service land turned loyal militia into a dispossessed, armed grievance almost overnight.
• Jagabandhu’s 1825 surrender was negotiated, not a capture in battle. This suggests the British still saw him as someone worth bargaining with, even eight years on.
• His story pairs with Jayee Rajguru’s earlier 1804 resistance. Together, they show Odisha’s anti-British movement building up in stages, not in one sudden uprising.