Hi, my name is Debabrata Sarkhel...we are from Dhoolakhola, Hijla, Dist. Barishal, Bangladesh. My parents are from then East Pakistan, came to India prior to India-Pakistan partition. Our surname(podobi) is actually Chatterjee, but our title (upadhi) is Sarkhel.
I also have this information that this title came from Mahashtra, the admiral of Chhatrapati Shivaji was titled as Sarkhel, which means Sar means top most person & khel is simply khel, i.e. sports & games activities. I hope this was related to their ability in battle field or navy.
Now the question is how this title came to eastern part of the country.....may be during 1760s the Maratha invasion to bengal brought some sarkhel family to settle in bengal. And they expanded their family in bengal....but i dont know how these khashriya's became brahims (most sarkhels found chatterji, moitra or ganguly etc....who are all brahims.)
Lets hope some body can put more lights on this.