ABSTRACT
Combining anthropological and historical approaches, the chapter explores ideas around royal sovereignty in the former ‘princely state’ of Bonai (Odisha). It primarily focuses on three intersecting aspects: 1) the rulers’ family chronicles as textual basis of kingship, 2) the divine manifestations intimately related to the raja and 3) contemporary ritual performances such as Dasara. The latter is celebrated side by side with rituals of the Indian nation state and indicates a multitude of co-existing claims to or forms of sovereignty. Dasara also expresses a strong emphasis on relationships between rulers and communities and allies – especially the foundational and lasting axis between raja and Bhuiyans. These privileged and privileging relations or legitimising alliances around the ruler are entangled with the ruler’s power over life. This power is elicited as supposed memories of and rumours about human sacrifices or in legends of deities. However, this power manifests as ‘spectral violence’ in a contemporary sacrificial polity around the former king, rather than executive power or actual violence taken over and exercised by the Indian state.
