Ramai Deva or Ramai Deo was a Rajput ruler who founded the Chauhan Dynasty rule in the erstwhile Patna state in today’s Bolangir district of Odisha in the year 1360 A.D. At the young age of twenty he staged a coup with the popular support of the commoners and overtook the Astha Mullicks or the eight regional Gauntias ruling as independent warlords in oligarchy after the Eastern Ganga administrator of the region died.
Ramai Dev ruled for 20 years as stated in the Sanskrit work of Kosalananda Kavyam written in the seventeenth century by poet Pandit Gangadhar Mishra from Puri.
[3] His pregnant queen named Jayanti Devi fled Garh Sambhar with some of her followers when Vishala Dev was killed by a Muslim king in a battle and is identified with Firuz Shah Tughlaq.
The eight divisions of Patna state ruled by the eight separate Gauntias or Mullicks before his time were Patnagarh, Kagaongarh, Salebhattagarh, Jarasinghagarh, Sindhekelagarh, Kholangarh, Goragarh and Kumnagarh.
Kosalananda Kavyam states that during a pilgrimage to Puri and in meeting with the Ganga king Bhanu Deva III, the later was so pleased with his karizma that he gave the hand of his niece in marriage to him.
Balaram Deva's descendant, Baliar Singh would conquer adjoining regions to his kingdom after multiple military campaigns, one of which includes the inclusion of Surguja and some 93 battles fought with Boudh for nearly one and half a decade before finally capturing it.