History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c35.s22.10

v3.c35.s22.10

We need not mention the many incidents in the life of of Prithvirāj described by the Rāsā such as the destruction of Kaimāsa, his most able minister and general. It is sufficient if we mention the probable wars which Prithvirāj must have waged beside his war with Mahomedans. The most important and powerful kingdoms in Northern India then were those of Gujarat, Bundelkhand and Pānchāla or Kanauj, ruled by Chālukyas, Chandellas and Gāhadavālas. And the kings in these at this time were also able and powerful viz. Bhima, Paramardideva and Jaichand. With each one of them Prithviraj fought and established his superiority over them. Each of these wars is full of chivalrous incidents which it would be out of place here to detail, such as the story of Alha and Udhalha of the Banāphara clan, two heroes who had been driven away by Paramardideva but who by the entreaty of their mother and for the sake of their mother-land came back to Mahoba to fight with Prithvirāj when he attacked it and died fighting with him. The whole poem of Chand is full of such daring incidents, so dear to the chivalrous Rajputs and thus deserves the vast popularity it enjoys in Rajputana. The historian, however, is unable to accept these stories as historical in the absence of corroborating epigraphic or other reliable evidence. The war with Paramardideva was waged in 1182 A. D. and the latter was conquered; as appears from Prithvirāja's inscription recorded at Madanpura in Chandella territory already mentioned.