Chand Bardai

Chand Bardai
Painting of Prithviraj Chauhan hunting a tiger, with Chand Bardai beside him, Jodhpur, ca.1830
Born	30 September 1149 ^[citation needed] Lahore
Died	c. 1200
Spouse	Kamla , Gauran^[citation needed]
Names Prithvi Chand

Chand Bardai (died c. 1200[1]) 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.[2]

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 proven to be historically unreliable and inaccurate by historians like Georg Bühler, Morrison, GH Ojha and Munshi Devi Prasad.[3]

Biography

Chand Bardai was born in Lahore.[4]^[page needed][1][5] Not much is known about his personal life apart from the various details that are entailed in Prithviraj Raso. His work is the earliest surviving text in a Western Hindi lect.[1] He wrote in Dingle, which was an old Rajasthani language.[5]

See also

• Hindi literature
• Prithviraj Chauhan
• Adrishya

References

1. Woolner, Alfred C. (1 January 2008). Introduction to Prakrit. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 2. ISBN 9788120801882.
2. 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
3. Ayyappappanikkar; Sahitya Akademi (1997). Medieval Indian literature: an anthology. Sahitya Akademi. p. 142. ISBN 978-81-260-0365-5.
4. Mainyu, Eldon A. (28 November 2011). Chand Bardai. Aud Publishing. ISBN 978-613-9-91118-9.
5. Critical Discourse in Punjabi. Rana Nayar, Alpna Saini, Tania Bansal. Taylor & Francis. 19 October 2023. ISBN 9781000963618. Chand Bardai's epic Prithvi Raj Raaso is accepted to be written in Dingle, an old Rajasthani language. Bardai was born in Lahore and was a court poet of Prithvi Raj. So, it can have some elements of Punjabi. But the form in which we get Prithvi Raj Raso today cannot confirm this. Some scholars consider it totally fake, but still some Punjabi elements can be located in this epic upon research.

Bibliography

• Cynthia Talbot (2015). The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Cauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107118560.

External links

• Chand Bardai at Kavita Kosh Archived 15 April 2013 at archive.today (Hindi)