Nagpuri

The Nagpuri, also called Sadan, are the Indo-Aryan people of the Chota Nagpur plateau, around Ranchi, Palamau and Khukhragarh. Their language, also called Sadri or Sadani, descends from Magadhi Prakrit and took shape between the eighth and fifteenth centuries under Kurukh and Munda influence; it was the court language of the Nagvanshi rajas.

The Nagvanshi, or Khokhra, dynasty ruled these forested hills. Mughal armies first reached them in 1585, and in 1615 the governor Ibrahim Khan Fath-i-Jang annexed Khokhra and sent Raja Durjan Shah to Jahangir's prisons; Durjan Shah was later restored as a tributary. The capital moved to Palkot in 1719.

The Nagvanshi became East India Company vassals in 1771, were reduced to zamindars when the Company took direct control in 1817, and faced the Kol rising of 1831 to 1833.