Chand Bardai was an Indian poet who composed Prithviraj Raso, an epic poem in Brajbhasa about the life of the Chahamana king Prithviraj Chauhan. The poem presents him as a court poet of Prithviraj. According to it, after Prithviraj was defeated at the Second battle of Tarain and taken to Ghazna by Muhammad of Ghor, Chand Bardai travelled to Ghazna and helped Prithviraj kill Muhammad. .[1]
| Chand Bardai | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The cover of a Prithviraj Raso version published by the Nagari Pracharini Sabha | |||||
| Born | 30 September 1149, Lahore[citation needed] | ||||
| Died | 1200( 50-51 years)[citation needed] | ||||
| Spouse | Kamla , Gauran[citation needed] | ||||
| |||||
The Prithviraj Raso was embellished with time and quite a few authors added to it. Only parts of the original manuscript are still intact. There are many versions of Raso but scholars agree that the biggest canto is considered the part of original "Prithivraj Raso". In its longest form the poem comprises upwords of 10,000 stanzas. Prithviraj Raso was proved historically unreliable and inaccurate by historians like Georg Bühler, Morrison, GH Ojha and Munshi Devi Prasad.[2]
Early life
editChand Bardai was born in Lahore, western Punjab to a Bhatt Brahmin family of Jagati Gotra.[3] Although not much is known about his personal life apart from the various details that are entailed in Prithviraj Raso.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Rima Hooja (2006). A HISTORY OF RAJASTHAN (PB). Rupa & Company. pp. 364–365. ISBN 978-81-291-1501-0.
Interestingly, it is this version that today finds popular expression (including in its film rendition) whenever the tale of Prithviraj is retold. As far as historical facts go, however, it is well known that Muhammad of Ghor did not die until 1206, and that too not at the hands of Prithviraj III. Rather, he was assassisnated on 15 March 1206 at Damyak. The assassins, according to some sources, were Hindu Khokars, and according to others, Ismailis
- ^ Ayyappappanikkar; Sahitya Akademi (1997). Medieval Indian literature: an anthology. Sahitya Akademi. p. 142. ISBN 978-81-260-0365-5.
- ^ Mainyu, Eldon A. (28 November 2011). Chand Bardai. Aud Publishing. ISBN 978-613-9-91118-9.
Bibliography
edit- Cynthia Talbot (2015). The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Cauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107118560.
External links
edit- Chand Bardai at Kavita Kosh Archived 15 April 2013 at archive.today (Hindi)