Birth history of Nayagarh in the thirteenth century is an important chapter in the political history of Odisha. Suryamani of Baghela dynasty came to Puri on a pilgrimage from "Rewa" of Madhya Pradesh and established his kingdom at Nayagarh. On the way to Puri, Both Suryamani and his brother Chandramani took rest at night at Gunanati. The area was full of tigers and at night a tiger attacked him. Both the brothers fought the tiger and killed it. The local people praised the brave brothers and elected Suryamani as their leader. Suryamani gradually built his fort at Gunanati and married a Mali girl. After the death of his first wife he again married a Kshatriya girl. From there, he then attacked Haripur and Ralaba. Ralaba was a very beautiful place. While sleeping a tiger attacked him at Ralaba he again fought and killed it. At that moment he saw a lady with an empty pot passed by to fetch water. Astonishingly, she returned with a little boy. Immediately, Suryamani obstructed the way of that lady and wanted to know about the mystery. The lady told she was Bouri Thakurani (a local worshiped goddess) and the tiger that the king killed was the boy. She advised Suryamani to kill her and worship her as his deity. From that date Suryamani worshiped "Bauri Thakurani" at Ralaba and built his fort there and adopted Tiger Head as a state symbol.
Ninth king of this dynasty "Bagel Singh" (1480–1510) came on a hunting to a place in between Rukshi and Balaram mountains and saw a wonderful sight that a rabbit pressed down a dog there. After seeing this he selected and shifted his capital to this place. As per his name this place was known as "Baghua Nayagarh". The place where such an event occurred is now known as "KukurTasara".
12th King of Nayagarh Raghunath Sing (1565–1595) was highly powerful. During this time Muslims had already captured Odisha and the atmosphere of the coastal Odisha was fully indiscipline. Last independent king Mukunda Dev (1565) was
