Panchal

Brahmin Indian caste
the Hindu Caste

Panchal or Panchal Brahmin (Sanskrit: पांचाल, romanized: Pānchāl) is a Master Craftsman caste of India. Panchal is a collective term for class of engineers, architects, priests, sculptors and temple builders. They are Brahmins They belong to the Vishwakarma sect and are also known as Panchal Brahmin.

Panchal are group of people, who took Engineering and Technology works as an occupation. This community uses the surnames like: Panchal, Vishwakarma, Singh, Dhiman, Sharma, Vashista, etc. The Panchal Brahmin has many gotra and they maintain clan exogamy as a strict rule for marriage. The community is moving very highly in society in both business and education. They worship Lord Vishwakarma as their clan deity and observe the Vishwakarma Day (a day after Diwali), Vishwakarma Jayanti (17 September) as a day which holds very high religious significance to their community and their deity. On the day of Vishwakarma Day, all the Panchal people worship their working tools (like Saws, Hammers, Trowels, stethoscope and pens including other Modern Machines) in their homes, shops or offices and no work is done on this day. After this, everyone together performs a Havan and worships Lord Vishwakarma and on this day a huge Bhandara or Langar is organized by the Panchal Community in which Bhandara is served to all the people, irrespective of their religion or caste and without any discrimination. Then in the evening, everyone worships Vishwakarma Ji in their homes, performs Aarti and gives Prasad to the family. on this day, Govardhan Puja is also performed by everyone in same evening. Vishwakarma Day is celebrated not only by Panchal but by all hand working people with the same passion and all other people also.

They are Brahmins and maintain themselves as priests of several temples in the state of Kerala and Telangana. Major temples such as Sri Kalika Durga Parameshwari Temple and Vishwakarma Mandir, Guwahati have Vishwabrahmins or Panchal Brahmin as the main priest. According to the customs in Jagannath Puri Temple, the chief priest of the puri temple belongs to Vishwabrahmin community and the chief priest has been of vishwabrahmin community since the establishment of the temple. They are General Category in states such as Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu and are written as Panchal Brahmin. Whereas in states such as Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, they also belong to OBC category due to financial restraints faced during colonial times.