My family are descendants of the Bhanja dynasty, the erstwhile royalty of the eastern princely state of Mayurbhanj. When my sister and I returned from New York City completing our studies, we decided to restore our ancestral property in Baripada, Odisha (the capital of Mayurbhanj) and hope to bring development through tourism. We had no idea we would stumble upon a 100-year-old love story which almost tore my family and divided the princely state apart.
Mayurbhanj State (or Morbhanj)(Odia: ମୟୁରଭଞ୍ଜ ରାଜ୍ୟ) was one of the princely states of India during the period of the British Raj. It was one of the largest states of the Eastern States Agency and one of the three states of the Bengal States Agency. The emblem of the state were two peacocks for according to legend the ancestors of the ancient rulers originated from a peafowl’s eyes a 1000 years ago.
The Belgadia Palace the only palace which was not given to the Indian Union post independence and kept locked in the family and as my family moved in we begun to restore the property and as we opened rooms and cupboards we discovered a trunk full of letters, diaries and biographies of the Bhanja dynasties most famous ruler, the charismatic and visionary Maharajah Sri Ram Chandra Bhanj Deo, what was surprising amongst his possessions was his love letters to a woman called Sucharu Devi.
HH Maharajah Sri Ram Chandra Bhanj Deo was the 45th ruler of Mayurbhanj and even though he had autonomous power of his state, alliances were strictly arranged between the state in the princely state and the British governor. After losing his father at a young age, he was betrothed to the Hindu Rajput princess of Porahat (now in Bihar) his father's best friend’s daughter. He attended Mayo College in Ajmer and completed his further studies in England, common for young princes at the time so they were close to the crown and European aristocrats. On his return, he spent his time in Calcutta, the then British capital of India, and at an event in Darjeeling where the aristocrats of East India were throwing a party including the Tagore’s and Sen’s, he met and fell in love with the 15-year-old Sucharu Devi, third daughter of the famed leader of the Brahmo Samaj, Keshab Chandra Sen, philosopher and social reformer of 19th century Bengal. She was educated, well-traveled, opinionated, and a talented artist. He was 18 and about to be sworn in as Maharajah, he wrote a letter to his British secretary and his minister in Mayurbhanj of his intention of sending a proposal to her father at the earliest.
As the state senators and his British advisors mulled over what they considered his impulsive decision, he began to court Sucharu and got engaged to her. The state was aghast and the British presented him with an option if there were internal disturbances they would call for his abdication. That was in 1889 and the crown prince’s family also vehemently opposed the match. “The daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen as Maharani of Mayurbhanj! The daughter of that rebel, that revolutionary! To the conservative, orthodox powers in the Hindu state this was preposterous as she was a Brahmo, and of a different caste and religon,” reads Sucharu Devi’s biography written by her daughter, Joyoti.
The young prince had his hands bound and with a final apology letter addressed to Sucharu, he married the princess of Porahat who had been adopted by the Panchkote royal family (now in Bengal) But the romance between him and Sucharu Devi did not die. “We tried to persuade her to marry but nothing would induce her to forget her lover,” writes Suniti Devi, her elder sister — the erstwhile queen of Coochbehar and grandmother to Gayatri Devi— in her autobiography.
In the meantime, a torch-bearer of feminism in India, she was elected president of Bengal Women’s Education League in 1931.
Sriram Chandra’s first wife, HH Lakshmi Devi, gave birth to two sons and a daughter and thereafter, she died of smallpox along with her youngest daughter. After almost 14 years when the Maharajah traveled around the world he was once again in a party in Calcutta when he caught a glimpse of a familiar face. He met Sucharu Devi after all these years and realized she had never got married as she had already given her heart to him. Realizing she was his one true love, he gave a historic speech in the Mayurbhanj senate where he said that as a Hindu ruler he had two responsibilities, one of dharma (duty) to his people and the second of karma, to himself(destiny).His duty was to marry a Hindu wife and give an heir to the throne, his karma was Sucharu, a connection written in the stars for him. His family was furious and said even if he married her she would never be allowed to enter the palace. He then refurbished and designed The Belgadia Palace,a former guest house for royal dignitaries who visited the state for her. Writes Suniti Devi, “The Maharaja’s wife died, and he came back to ask my sister to marry him. The marriage (sic) took place in Calcutta, and for some time they led the happiest lives.” This was 1904. They traveled the world together, patronized famous artists like Hemandra Nath Majumdar and Jamini Roy, built schools, hospitals and even worked with the Tata family to build the first Iron Ore and Steel mine in Mayurbhanj. They were philanthropists, patrons of arts and crafts, and wanted to build a self-sustainable democratic state.
He had a son, Dhrubendra Chandra Bhanj Deo and two daughters of his second wife, Sucharu Devi. Dhrubendra Chandra Bhanj Deo became a famous air force pilot and died in action during the Second World War.The elder daughter was married to the Maharaja of Vizianagram and the younger daughter, Rani Jyoti Manjari Devi was married to Mahant Sarveshwar Das, the Raja Bahadur of Nandgaon, a princely state of the erstwhile Central Provinces and Berar.
Their happiness was shortlived as on a hunting trip with the British representatives and his brother in law, he was mysteriously shot and succumbed to his injuries in 1912 aged 41. Rumors spread of the fatal shot being fired by Sucharu’s own brother, hence no one from her family was ever allowed to enter the state again and all ties broken with them. Though years later it is said their union was so powerful and influential given they both believed in Indian self-rule, it was a ploy by the British to have him killed and disconnect the connection between the famous Maharajah and his aristocratic Bengali wife who commanded high society in Calcutta and Delhi.
She died in 1961 in Calcutta and his last remains lay in Mayurbhanj with his first wife and their daughter. She was never allowed to visit his grave till much later in her life when her stepson brought her back to Mayurbhanj and opened the doors of Belgadia for her one last time so she could pay her last respects to Sri Ram’s masoleoum.The Belgadia Palace had all her possessions including her children's then packed away in boxes forever more and it was her biography written by her daughter that gave light to this fantastic story. The most famous line of her biography includes a letter from Sri Ram:
In a letter dated January 31, 1904, the 32- year-old Sriram Chandra writes to Sucharu Devi proposing marriage once again. It goes: “Dear S… Will you then share my sacrifices if I ask you to sacrifice all worldly pleasures and to be my spiritual companion? That seems to me at present to be the voice of the Almighty. Yours S.R.C. Bhanj Deo.” They spent only 4 years together but curiously out of all the royal properties the family chose to donate to the states of Bengal,Meghalaya,and Odisha, Belgadia was never meant to leave the family, it is written they spent the happiest days of their lives here.
