Katoch

[1][2] The Katoch Clan is considered to be oldest Ruling Royal Dynasty of the world.Their areas of residence are mainly in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand, and the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Members of the clan say it comes from the words Kat (army) and uch (upper class)[5] but other sources say that it comes from kot (fort).

The main branch of the Katoch clan were the rulers of the Kangra State, which was, by some accounts, the most prominent kingdom between the Ravi and Sutlej in the pre-modern period.

[9] The tradition holds that the Katoch were the rulers of Kangra from the times of Mahabharata till the pre-independence era.

[10] In the pre-modern period, the hill states of the modern Himachal Pradesh are said to have constantly warred with each other, despite relations of kinship and intermarriage.

After the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1846, the whole area was ceded to the British East India Company, eventually integrated into the Punjab province.

The Katochs and the surrounding hill rajas were assigned small jagirs over which they had the rights of revenue and magisterial authority.

[17] Until the reforms of the 1930s, the Katoch women were only married westward, generally to the Pathania and Jamwal/Jamuwal men and vice versa.