| Conventional Long Name: | Panchkot Raj |
| Year Start: | 80 AD |
| Capital: | Garh Panchkot |
| Title Leader: | Raja (King or Chief) |
| Leader1: | Maharaja Damodar Shekhar |
| Year Leader1: | 1st |
| Today: | Jharkhand, West Bengal, India |
Damodar Shekhar was the first king of the Panchkot Raj family. Panchkot Raj family belonged to the Kudmi Mahato[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] community.
The Panchkot Jagir (also known as Zamindari Raj of Panchkot or Chakla Panchkot) was founded about the year 80 AD by Damodar Shekhar. The Panchkot Raj had ruled from their capital at Garh Panchkot from 940 AD to 1750 AD. However, Bargi attacks laid waste to the place. Around 1750 AD, Panchkot Raj family shifted to Kashipur and have been there since then. Amongst the recent members were Raja Bahadur Jyoti Prasad Singh Deo, who ruled from 1901–1938 and was granted the title of Raja as a personal distinction in 1912. Raja Kalyani Prasad Singh Deo ruled from 1938–1945, Raja Shankari Prasad Singh Deo ruled from 1945 to 1956 and Raja Bhubaneswari Prasad Singh Deo ruled from 1956-1972.[7] [8] [9]
According to the legend, Raja Jagat Deo was the king of the Kingdom of Dhar in present day Madhya Pradesh. He was going to Puri along with his wife on pilgrimage. On their way to Puri, his wife gave birth to a son at their camp in Jhalda. But, the king assumed the newborn child to be dead and left him there. After they had left the region, the abandoned child was found by the local Kudmis[10] [11] who named him as Damodar Shekhar. Damodar Shekhar later established the Panchkot Royal dynasty in 80 A.D.
In Orissa many Kudmis are pradhans or village headmen holding service lands. A small proportion of them make a livelihood as landless day labourers while at the other end of the scale the few who have risen to be considerable zamindars have managed to transform themselves into Rajputs and cannot now be recognized as Kudmis.[12] Two instances of this have come to notice: The Zamindar of Khelar in Nayabasan paragana of the Midnapur District is said to have been a Kudmi who attempted to reform his brethren by urging them to abandon the custom of widow marriage and to give up yoking cows to the plough. His efforts, however were unsuccessful and the Khelar family now call themselves Kshatriyas, and strenuously disown all connexion with the Kudmis. Another case is that of the well known house of Pachet in Eastern Manbhum. The Pachet Raja claims to be a Go-banshi Rajput and traces back his ancestry fifty-two generations to a child discovered in the woods by the Kudmis being suckled by a cow. The Kudmis of those part says they have been there just the same number of generations.[13] [14] [15] [16] The family (The Pachet Raja) by the eighteenth century had been Hinduized and provided with a genealogy linking the first Raja with the twelfth Maharaja of Ujjain.[17]