In early medieval Odisha, the court at Tosali moved with a certain rhythm—measured, deliberate, deeply rooted in ritual and order. Messengers arrived with news from distant villages, priests recited verses that echoed through stone halls, and scribes etched royal commands into copper plates that would outlast generations.
At the center of it all sat a ruler.
And more than once, that ruler was a queen.
The Bhaumakara dynasty offers a striking glimpse into a time when women held the reins of power and shaped the course of a kingdom with confidence and continuity.
Table of Contents
A Line of Queens Who Did Not Step Aside
The story begins, as many royal transitions do, with uncertainty—a king gone, a court waiting to see what comes next.
Many believe that King Kshemankara founded this dynasty around 736 CE. Not much is known about the people of this dynasty, except that they were definitely non-Aryan.
The First Queen: Tribhuvana Mahadevi
After the dynasty had successfully ruled the land for almost a hundred years, the first queen, Tribhuvana Mahadevi, took the throne. She was the daughter of Mysore’s King Rajamalla and was born under the Western Ganga Dynasty. Like any other caring father, he had helped his son-in-law, Prince Lalitahara of the Bhaumakara Dynasty (also known as Gayada), reestablish his kingdom after the Pala invasions. Some historical accounts point to the fact that in their quest to reestablish Prince Lalitahara, they may have also usurped his elder brother, Prince Shivakaradeva II.
Unfortunately, Prince Lalitahara died soon after, and his son, Prince Kusumahara, ascended the throne in 839 CE. But as fate would have it, he too died young, and his son was still an infant at the time. So, Tribhuvana Mahadevi ascended the throne in 846 CE.
She ruled the land for 20 years, and her name appears in inscriptions tied to land grants and administration, recorded with the same formal weight given to kings. According to records of the time, her administrative abilities were nothing short of legendary. Her reign was known for low taxes and almost no corruption. Her excellent qualities made her a well-loved queen and made way for people of the time to be more receptive to future queens of the land.
After her came Tribhuvana Mahadevi II, and later Dandi Mahadevi and Gauri Mahadevi.
The Second Queen: Tribhuvana Mahadevi II
A few decades later, the first queen’s great-grandson, Subhakara IV, married the daughter of the Somavanshi King Janamejaya of Kosala. Her birth name was Prithvi Mahadevi. When he died, the Somavanshis seized the throne and made Prithvi Mahadevi the queen. The new queen wanted a quick acceptance, as there were other claims to the throne, namely her late husband’s brother’s sons. So, she changed her name to Tribhuvana Mahadevi II, clearly intending to use the goodwill generated by the first queen to her advantage.
Unfortunately for her, this idea did not work, as the nobles still saw her as an outsider, a part of the Somavanshi clan. They were worried that the Somavanshis were gaining more power and would control their land, so they plotted to dethrone the new queen. They succeeded.
It was a few years later that four queens ruled the land in succession: Gauri Mahadevi, Dandi Mahadevi, Vakuladevi, and Dharma Mahadevi.
The Third Queen: Gauri Mahadevi
Gauri Mahadevi was a regent for her daughter, Dandi Mahadevi. Her rule was said to be peaceful, and she was known for her administrative ability. Unfortunately, nothing much can be found about her in the pages of history.
The Fourth Queen: Dandi Mahadevi
Dandi Mahadevi was crowned in 916 CE and ruled for two decades. It has been said that she kept the borders safe from “formidable enemies” who were “humbled by her power.” If we look at the copper plates detailing the commerce of the time, we can say without a doubt that the town prospered under her rule. She was also referred to as “Paramamaheshwari,” or the Great Follower of Lord Mahesh, another name for Lord Shiva.
The Fifth Queen: Vakuladevi
After Dandi Mahadevi’s death, her stepmother, Vakuladevi, succeeded her to the throne. She was born in the Bhanja family, and her becoming a queen created quite a stir. She remained on the throne only for a short time.
The Sixth and the Last Queen: Dharma Mahadevi
After Vakuladevi, her sister-in-law, Dharma Mahadevi, ascended the throne. Unfortunately, not much was recorded about her reign. She lost the throne to King Yayati, the Somavanshi king who was Prithvi Mahadevi’s brother.
The World They Governed
The copper plate inscriptions from their reigns read almost like maps.
They describe villages granted to scholars and institutions, tracing boundaries through rivers, groves, and pathways. There is a sense of familiarity in these details—a ruler who understands the land not as an abstraction but as a lived space.
Religious life during their rule carried a quiet openness. Traditions linked to Buddhism, Shaivism, and Vaishnavism received patronage, allowing different paths of thought and devotion to grow side by side.
Temples rose. Monasteries found support. The spiritual landscape expanded in many directions at once.
Beyond the court, the rhythms of daily life continued—fields cultivated, goods exchanged, communities connected through trade routes that stretched across the region.
Power That Stayed
Many of these queens came to the throne after personal loss. That part follows a familiar pattern in royal history.
What stands out is what happened next.
They did not hold power briefly before passing it along. Their reigns stretched on, steady enough to leave a clear imprint on administration and culture. The court, the officials, and the wider kingdom appear to have accepted their authority without visible fracture.
It suggests that, given the right attitudes, the political world could accommodate female rule with more ease than we often assume.
Why Their Story Feels Faint Today
Their names do not carry the same recognition as rulers from the Maurya Empire or the Gupta Empire. In fact, their names are not even mentioned in most history classes.
Part of this comes down to scale and visibility—larger empires left behind grander monuments and broader narratives that found their way into textbooks. The Bhaumakaras, by contrast, remain preserved in inscriptions and regional histories—quieter, but no less real.
What Remains
If you imagine the court at dusk—lamps flickering, scribes bent over copper plates, messengers waiting for sealed orders—you can almost see how it must have felt.
A queen sits at the center of it all, listening, deciding, speaking.
Her words travel outward, carried across fields and villages, shaping lives she will never see.
There is no sense of novelty in the record, no need to explain her presence.
Only the steady continuation of the rule.
And that, perhaps, is what makes the story linger.
