Jashpur Nagar

Jashpur Nagar was the chief town of Jashpur, an upland state in the forested country adjoining Surguja. Its origin survives principally through dynastic traditions. The district's historical account describes Sujan Rai arriving at Khudia, the seat of a Dom ruler named Raibhan, and leading a revolt that established a new ruling house. The story places the transition around the middle of the eighteenth century, but its episodes should be understood as remembered origins rather than a securely documented medieval chronology.

Jashpur subsequently acknowledged the Bhonsles of Nagpur. The remembered tribute of twenty-one buffaloes gives a concrete expression of this subordinate relationship. A firmer political turning point came in 1818, when an agreement with Madhuji Bhonsla transferred the Surguja group of states to British authority. Jashpur was initially treated in some respects as a dependency of Surguja, through which tribute was paid, while otherwise being handled as a distinct territory. Its capital therefore stood within a small hill state whose ruling family retained a local domain while relations of tribute and supervision changed around it.