History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c35.s22.3

v3.c35.s22.3

The history of the life of this last Hindu chivalrous emperor of India has been given in great detail in the Rāsā supposed to be composed by Chand Bhāt, a contemporary of Prithvirāj. But as the present Rāsā has nearly wholly transformed the probable original nucleus and as many events and statements given therein have been proved untrue from trustworthy records, it is difficult to determine which part of its account is true. There are two historical poems, however, which will assist us, first, the Prithvirāja-Vijaya-kāvya composed by a Kashmiri court-poet of Prithvirāj himself, first brought to notice by Bühler and later by Mr. Harbilas Sarda of Ajmer (J. R. A. S. 1913) and second, Hammirkāvya published by J. S. Kirtane. The first is, however, incomplete and does not come down to the close of Prithvirāja's career; while the second devotes itself more to the glory of Hammira a descendant of Prithvirāj. We will try to construct an account of the life of this hero from all these sources, using the Rāsā account so far as it is probable and uncontradicted.