Alha

Statue of Alha riding on a horse with one of his hands up and his horse galloping.
Statue of Alha riding on a horse

Alha (ISO: Ālhā) was a legendary general of the Chandel king Paramardideva (also known as Parmal), who fought Prithviraj Chauhan in 1182 CE. He is one of the main characters of the Alha-Khand ballad.

Origin

According to the legend, Alha and Udal were children of the Dasraj, a successful commander in the army of Chandel king Parmal. They belonged to the Banaphar clan, which are of mixed Ahir and Rajput descent,[1][2] Purana states that Mahil a Rajput and an enemy of Alha and Udal said that Alha has come to be of a different family (kule htnatvamagatah) because his mother is an Aryan Ahir.[3]

The Bhavishya Purana, a Sanskrit text, states that Alha's mother was called Devaki and was a member of the Ahir caste. The Ahirs are among the "oldest pastoralists" and were rulers of Mahoba.[4]

Folklore

In addition to the Aalha Khand and the Bhavishya Purana, the story of Alha is also found in a number of medieval manuscripts of the Prithviraj Raso. There is also a belief that the story was originally written by Jagnik, bard of Mahoba, but no manuscript has been found.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Hiltebeitel 1999, pp. 162–163: "Presumably it is an issue that would interest Ālhā audiences sensitive to the mixed-caste Kṣatrya-Ahir identity of the Banāphars... Ūdal (and the rest of the Banāphars) is susceptible to "mean caste" slurs and slights because of his combined Kṣatriya (Rajput) and cowherd (Ahir) background.".
  2. ^ Hiltebeitel 2009, p. 465.
  3. ^ Hiltebeitel 1999, p. 133.
  4. ^ Hiltebeitel 1999, pp. 132–133.
  5. ^ Claus, Diamond & Mills 2003, p. 12.

References

  • Claus, Peter J.; Diamond, Sarah; Mills, Margaret Ann (2003). South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka Special -Reference. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-93919-5.
  • Crowley, Thomas (2020). Fractured Forest, Quartzite City A History of Delhi and Its Ridge. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9789353885564.
  • Hiltebeitel, Alf (1999). Rethinking India's oral and classical epics: Draupadī among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226340500.
  • Hiltebeitel, Alf (2009). When the Goddess was a Woman Mahābhārata Ethnographies : Essays. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9789004193802.
  • Mayaram, Shail (2022). The Secret Life of Another Indian Nationalism Transitions from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108832571.
  • Talbot, Cynthia (2016). The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Cauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000. Cambridge University Press. p. 203. ISBN 9781107118560.
  • Mishra, Pt. Lalita Prasad (2007). Alhakhand (in Hindi) (15 ed.). Lucknow (India): Tejkumar Book Depot (Pvt) Ltd. p. 614.

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