| Koriya | |
| — former princely state — | |
| Coordinates | |
| Country | India |
| State | Chhattisgarh |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) |
Koriya, also spelled as Korea, was a princely state of British Empire in India.[1] After Indian Independence in 1947, the ruler of Koriya acceded to the Union of India on 1 January 1948 and was made part of Surguja District of Central Provinces and Berar province. On January 1950, “Central Provinces and Berar” province was renamed Madhya Pradesh state. After November 2000, it along with princely state of Changbhakar, became Koriya district of Chhattisgarh state. It had an area of 1,631 sq. m. and a population of 126,874 as on 1941.
The state of Koriya, which includes 400 villages, is in Chhattisgarh. It borders to the north on Rewa; to the east on Suruguja; to the south, on the British district of Bilaspur (Province of Central provinces); to the southwest, on Rewa again; and to the west, on Changbhakar.
The ruling families of Korea are Chauhan Rajputs who came to Korea from Rajputana in the 13th century and conquered the country. Before the coming of the Marathas, it is alleged that the rajas of Korea “lived in perfect independence, and never having been necessitated to submit to the payment of any tribute, they had no occasion to oppress their subjects.” This situation changed in 1790, and Korea had to pay tribute to the Marathas. It also seems to have had some indefinite feudal relations with Surguja, but the British government ignored them when it was ceded to them by the Bhonsla raja of Nagpur in 1818. Upon the extinction of the direct line in 1897, a distant collateral branch of the ruling family was recognized by the government of India. In 1891, the government decided that the five states of the Surguja group (Surguja, Udaipur, Jashpur, Korea, and Changbhakar) plus Bonai and Gangpur and Seraikela and Kharsawan, formerly known as the Tributary Mahals of Chhota Nagpur, were not part of British India, and revised sanads were issued in 1899 formally recognizing them as feudatory states and defining their relations with the British government.
The rulers of the state have apparently always held the title of raja and were so recognized by the British as early as 1819.[2]