Then became part of Dakhina Koshala In the 4th century CE, the Allahabad inscription records Samudra Gupta defeated Mahendra of Kosala, corresponding roughly to present-day Chhattisgarh plains and western Odisha.

[2] Padmasambhava, one of the main early scholars of Tibetan Buddhism, was said to be the son of the king of Sambhal of Oddiyana.

Almost all historians see this area as the Swat Valley; some cite literary and archaeological evidence to associate Oddiyana with modern-day Odisha.

They were succeeded by the Panduvamshis, whose king, Tivaradeva, tried to expand east of Kosala into Utkala, now coastal Odisha.

Kosala fell into Telugu Choda hands, who had aided a rival king who defeated the Somvamshis.

Under Kapilendra Deva, Gajapatis became an empire stretching from the lower Ganga in the north to the Kaveri in the south.

However, the state faced constant attacks by the Marathas of Nagpur, who attempted to subdue the kingdom by force.

After the Third Anglo-Maratha war in 1817, Sambalpur became officially British territory and the Chauhans were restored to the throne.

Incensed by the breach of custom of letting a woman rule, many of the Gond and Binjhal landlords, threatened by caste Hindu favourites of the rani, supported a rival claimant Surendra Sai.

[2] When Sambalpur's ruler died without a direct male heir in 1849, the British seized the state under the doctrine of lapse.

During the 1857 rebellion, mutineers stationed in Sambalpur broke Surendra Sai and his companions out of jail, and they soon raised an army against the British.

The district was transferred back to Bengal in 1905, but the subdivisions of Phuljhar and Chandarpur-Padampur remained with the Central Provinces.

Beginning in Sambalpur and spreading throughout the state, the Odia language agitation forced the British to back down.

[3] In the district of Sambalpur, a large number of Shiva temples were built during the Chauhan period.

Forests play an important role in the economy in terms of contribution to revenue, Domestic Product as well as dependence of people for livelihood.

Kendu leaf is one of the most important non-wood forest products of Sambalpur and is also called as green gold of Odisha.

The place is famous for its globally renowned textile bounded patterns and fabrics locally known as Baandha.

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Sambalpur one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640).

[4] According to the 2011 census Sambalpur district has a population of 1,041,099,[7] roughly equal to the nation of Cyprus[8] or the US state of Rhode Island.

[10] Samaleswari, the presiding deity in Hinduism in this region is enshrined at Samlei Gudi on the bank of Mahanadi River.