Alha-Khand

The term Alha Khand is used to refer to poetic works in Hindi which consists of a number of ballads describing the brave acts of two 12th century Banaphar Rajput heroes, Alha and Udal, generals working for king Paramardi-Deva (Parmal) of Mahoba (1163-1202 CE) against Prithviraj Chauhan (1166–1192 CE) of Ajmer. The works has been entirely handed down by oral tradition and presently exists in many recensions, which differ from one another both in language and subject matter.^[1] The Bundeli, Bagheli, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Kannauji recensions are the most well known among these.^[2][3]

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 Deva (Parmal) of Mahoba in Bundelkhand.^[4] 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.^[5] 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". Shyamsundar Das concluded that it is separate text and published it using the title Parmal Raso in 1919. It has 36 cantos, starting from the origin of the Chandellas and ends with Alha becoming a disciple of yogi Gorakhnath and retiring to forests as a monk.^[6] The author laments on the end of the Hindu kingdoms and the beginning of the Pathan rule. It uses the traditional metres like doha, chaupai, chhappaya etc.

Mahoba Samaya is a section of some of the Prithviraj Raso manuscripts. The story given is essentially the same as in Mahoba Khand. It however does not have a section on the origin of Chandellas.^[7]

Alha-khand: With 23 cantos, starting with Pritvhiraj winning over Sanyogita and ending with Bela becoming sati.^[8] In 1865, Charles Elliott compiled a recension by collating various oral versions into 23 cantos and this recension was the basis of the first printed edition in 1871.^[2] Later George Abraham Grierson enlarged this recension with additional inputs. Portions of this recension was translated into English ballad metre by William Waterfield, under the title of The Nine-Lakh Chain or the Maro Feud (1876). Later, this translation, along with the abstracts of the untranslated portions and an introduction written by Grierson was published under the title of The Lay of Alha: A Saga of Rajput Chivalry as Sung by Minstrels of Northern India (1923).

The most popular version of Alha-Khand is the text written by Lalitaprasad Mishra, composed at the request of Prayag Narayan, the son of Munshi Nawal Kishore in Samvat 1956 (1900 CE).^[9] The work was written in the Alha metre. It has the same 23 cantos as The Lay of Alha, but has much more detailed narration.