Alha-Khand

The term Alha Khand is used to refer to poetic works in Bhojpuri and Bagheli and other regional languages which consists of a number of ballads describing the brave acts of two 12th century Commander in Chiefs, Alha and Udal, generals working for king Paramardi-Deva (Parmal) of Mahoba[1](1163-1202 CE) against Prithviraj Chauhan (1166–1192 CE) of Ajmer.

[2] 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.

[4][5] 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.

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.

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).

[5] While the poetic licence is apparent in the modern versions of the ballads, the attack of Prithviraj Chauhan is directly attested by two inscriptions of 1182CE at Madanpur near Lalitpur in a Jain temple.