The History of kanker is started from Stone era. In starting stage here human was like abysmal and their behave was like animals. With reference of Ramayana and Mahabharat there was a dense forest area named Dandakaranya and the Kanker state belonged to Dandakaranya.

According to myths the Kanker was the land of monks. A lot of Rishis (monks) named Kank, Lomesh, Shringi, Angira were lived here. In sixth century before Christ the region was affected by Buddhism. The ancient history of Kanker tells that it remained always independent state.

In 106 AD the Kanker state was under the Satvahan dynasty and the king was Satkarni, This fact is also descripted by Chinese visitor Whensaung.

After Satkarni his disasters named Pulumavi, Shivshri and Shivskand became the king. After Satvahans the state was under control of Nags, Vakataks and Gupt dynasties time to time.

After the Vakataks the Kanker state came under control of Nal dynasty. According to historians Vyghraraj was the first king of Nals. The second king Varahraj won the whole region of dandakaranya. After Varahraj, Bhavdutt verma became the king of Kanker state.

During the kingdom of Bhavdutt Verma Vakatak king Narendra Sen attacked on state and won a little part of state, but after some years Bhavdutt Verma recollect the lost part and also expand his state up to Orrisa and Maharashtra. After the death of Bhavdutt verma his son Arthpati became the king.

He got a bigger state from his father but he was a poor king and had not the qualities like his father and lost some part of states to Vatakataks. In 475 Skand Verma became the king of Kanker state and ruled up to 500 AD. He was the last memorable king of Nal dynasty. After his death the Kanker state suffered a lot of attacks and divided into many parts.

After the downfall of Nal kings the state was won by famous king Pulkeshin II of Chalukya dynasty, he also won the some part of Orrisa. During his kingdom a lot of temples were constructed in kanker state.

After Pulkeshin, Vikramaditya, Vinayaditya, Vijayaditya, Vikramaditya II, Kirtiverman II were the other kings of Chalukyas They Ruled the state up to 788 AD after Chalukyas the state was ruled by different dynasties time to time like Nals, Nags, Kalchuris etc up to 1100 AD.