Alha-Khand

The tradition & historical record

The term Alha Khand is used to refer to poetic works in Bhojpuri and Bagheli and other regional languages which contains several ballads fictionally describing the exploits of two legendary generals of the twelfth century, Alha and Udal, who belong to the Banaphar clan, who were trustworthy servants of the Chandelas of Jejakabhukti. This bardic tale revolves around the conflicts of these two legendary brothers with Prithviraj Chauhan. The works have been entirely handed down by oral tradition and presently exist in many recensions, which differ from one another both in language and subject matter. The Bundeli, Bagheli, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Kannauji recensions are the best known among these. The original language of this work has been continuously modernized over the centuries to suit the dialect of the reciter and it has been lost wholly in this process. This epical work is believed to have been written by Jagnayak (or Jagnik), a contemporary to Chand Bardai and the court poet of Chandela ruler Paramardi. The original work is now lost. The ballads from this work are still sung during the monsoons by the professional bardic singers (known as the Alhets) in various parts of northern India, mostly in Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and northern Madhya Pradesh. There are two main version of texts. Mahoba Khand: This work was discovered as a manuscript by Shyamsundar Das in 1901 as one of the two sections of a manuscript labelled "Prithviraj Raso". ¹

Banaphar : Brothers Dasraj (sons Alha, father of Indal, and Udan), Bachchharaj (sons Malkhan and Sulkhan), Todar, Rahmal. Chandelas: King Parmal married to Malhna (sister of Parihar Mahil), sons Brahmanand (married to Bela (daughter of Prathviraj), Ranjit, daughter Chandrabal. Jagnik: the author, son of Parmal's sister Jaichand: last king of Kannauj Mir Talhan: The Sayyad who accompanies the Banaphars, with 9 sons and 18 grandsons. Prithviraj Chauhan: the father of Bela ¹

The heroes of this poem are two brothers, Alha and Udal (or incarnation of Babra Bahan), the generals of Parmal's army who fought in the battle of Mahoba between Prithviraj III and Parmal in c.1182. The narration begins with the early exploits of Alha and Udal. They fought with the Karingarai (or Kalingarai) and killed him to avenge the killings of their father Dassaraj (or Dasraj) and uncle Baccharaj. Later they fought the battle of Mahoba. According to the Bhojpuri and the Kannauji recensions, Alha married Sonvati (Sonva), the princess of Nainagarh (Chunar), while according to the some other Western Hindi recensions he married Macchil, the daughter of Raghomacch of Haridwar. Apart from Alha and Udal, the brave deeds of other heroes like Malkhan and Sulkhan (the sons of Baccharaj), Brahamjit (the son of Parmal) and Talhan Syed are also described in this work. This work narrates the details of fifty-two wars in total. ¹

The genealogy of Chandela ruler Parmal (Paramardi) given in Mahoba Khand or Alha Khand does not match the genealogy given in Chandela inscriptions. In Mahoba Khand, the father, grandfather and the great-grandfather of Parmal are given as Kirtibramha, Madanbrahma, and Rahilbramha. While Madanavarman (1129–1163), Kirttivarman (1070–1098) and Rahila (9th century) were indeed ancestors of Paramardivarman (1165–1203), most names and the sequence do not match. According to the Alha Khanda, the Chandela dynasty of Jejakabhukti ended with Paramardivarman (referred to as Parmal in this bardic folklore). However, this is not supported by historical evidence. As per historical evidences and inscriptions, after Paramardivarman, there were about 5-6 emperors who had imperial titles. ¹

Sabse Bade Ladaiya, a television series based on the ballad aired on DD National from 2012. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Alha-Khand”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Alha-Khand is poetic works in Hindi, describing the brave acts of two 12th-century Indian heroes, Alha and Udal, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²