Kaziranga National Park comprises of 3 legends with its name and foundation. The name of this park is based on the Karbi language and the extensive presence of deer. Kaziranga is a combination of Kazi and ranga that means goat and red colour as per Karbi language. The second legend of this park is related to the 30th Ahom King - Rudra Singh who spent a night in the house of Chieftain Ranjit Phukan while going to Guwahati. At that time, he got astonished with the weaving art of Kamala - Phukan's daughter who made a stunning silk jacket to gift him. Then, king called her as Kazi that means an expert in a work and gifted Rongai and a land to her husband. Ultimately, people residing nearby started calling that land as Kazirongai and with time, it became Kaziranga.
According to the third legend, there was a childless couple namely Kazi & Rongai living in that region. For having a baby, that couple underwent several medical treatments and also resorted to spiritual and religious customers; however, nothing worked out. Eventually, they came into the contact to Madhabdev who was the chief disciple of the famous Mahapurush Srimanta Shankardeva. Madhabdev advised the couple to dig a pool in their area to benefit locals and this way, they can make their name memorable even after death.
On that pond, the local chieftain offered fish to Ahom Singh Swargaden Pratap Singha when he was moving around and got astonished by a fish. Then, he asked about the origin of the pond. When he got to learn about the history and origin of pond, he named it as Kaziranga.
Besides these 3 legends, there are many other incidents and stories that took place to bring this park to its present status. In 1904, Mary Curzon - the wife of then Viceroy of India - Lord Curzon requested her husband to give protection to endangered wildlife specifically one-horned rhinoceros in the Kaziranga National park. She got this thought after being failed to locate even a single Indian one-horned rhinoceros on her visit to this park. At that time, she learnt that these wildlife need some critical steps to get protection in the park. In 1985, The Park got a status of World Heritage site. So, there are so many notable historical factors about Kaziranga National park which are describing right below:
Developed between two districts of Assam - Nagaon and Golaghat, Kaziranga National park has started in the beginning of 20th century when Mary Curzon - the wife of Lord Curzon who was the viceroy of India at that time, paid a visit to Kaziranga in 1904. That time, Kaziranga was quite famous for its extensive population of one-horned rhinoceros. To the great surprise, Mary Curzon could not find a single rhinoceros during her visit. This unavailability of rhinoceros made Mary Curzon to think of the conservation of wildlife like one-horned rhinoceros and hence, she urged Lord Curzon - her husband to take some critical measures to give safety and conservation to these wildlife. After thinking about this proposal and a lot of discussion, on November 4th, 1904, Lord Curzon presented a suggestion to bring in a wildlife reserve in Kaziranga. With his efforts, on 1st June 1905, the Kaziranga Proposed Reserve Forest came into existence in the 232 sq. kms area.
After some time, another proposal to stretch out the reserve forest of Kaziranga to the eastern region was made. Though local people including European community were not in the favour of this proposal due to the commercial loss, but at last, the proposal was accepted and the park region was grown by 152 sq. kms to the Brahmaputra River. In 1908, it gained the title of Kaziranga Reserve Forest and in 1916, it got another title for Kaziranga Game Sanctuary.
In the year 1950, the game sanctuary of Kaziranga was renamed as wildlife sanctuary. After few years in 1954, the government of Assam passed another bill for Rhinoceros that enforced serious penalties to hunters who come here to hunt rhinoceros. In 1968, another bill was passed by the government of Assam that was Assam National Park which was centred around making national park in the state. In 1974, the area of 430 sq. kms was included in the region of park and it got title for Kaziranga National Park.