Chand Bardai
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Chand Bardai (circa 1200,November 30, 1150 ) was the court poet of the Indian king Prithviraj III Chauhan, who ruled Ajmer and Delhi from 1165 to 1192. A native of Lahore, Chand Bardai composed the Prithviraj Raso, an epic poem in Hindi about the life of Prithviraj. A Bhat Brahman of Jagati gotra, he was the worshipper of goddess Saraswati, who gifted him with boon of Bardai.
The Prithviraj Raso was embellished with time and quite a few authors added to it. Only parts of the original manuscript are still intact. There are many versions of Raso but scholars agree that a small 1400 stanza poem is the real "Prithivraj Raso". In its longest form the poem comprises upwords of 10,000 stanzas. The Prithviraj Raso is a source of information on the social and clan structure of the Kshatriya communities of northern India. It is valuable not only as historical material but as the earliest monument of the Western Hindi language, and the first of the long series of bardic chronicles for which Rajputana is celebrated. It is written in ballad form, and portions of it are still sung by itinerant bards throughout north-western India and Rajputana.
[edit] Family
Chand Bardai was married twice. His wives — Kamla and Gauran — gave birth to 10 sons, namely Sur, Sunder, Sujan, Jalhan, Vallah, Balbhadra, Kehari, Vir Chand, Avdut and Gunraj and one daughter, Rajabai. He was closest to his son Jalhan, who was extremely intelligent that is why when the poet went to Ghazni, he asked Jalhan to complete the pending work of ‘Prithviraj Raso’.[1]
[edit] Life
The royal poet had mastery of grammar, literature, astrology, prosody and the Puranas. He was conversant with the Abhiri, Autkali, Chandali, Dravirhini, Shkari, Swali and Vijaitia dialects. One of his most famous work was Prithviraj Raso. He compiled it in the archaic form of Brajbhasa. It is a long poem consisting of nearly 100,000 stanzas elucidating a chronicle of his master’s achievements and the historical accounts. According to Colonel Tod, the poems of Chand Bardai have frequent indistinct references to fire arms, especially the malgola. Impressed by the classic elegance of the work, Colonel Tod translated about 30,000 stanzas into English. French scholar Garsa-de-Tasse certified and testified the authority of this compilation.[1]
Chand Bardai was not only a court poet but was a member of the inner circle of the king. The poet accompanied the king during wars. After the second battle of Trian (now Taraori, near Karnal in Haryana state — then Punjab) in 1192 A.D., the king was arrested by Muhammad Ghauri. He was put in Goar jail in Ghazni, and he was blinded. The Royal poet managed to approach his king, and chalked out a plan to finish Ghauri. He convinced Ghauri that the king was an expert in archery and he should be asked to display his skills.
The stage was set. Ghauri was seated at the top to enjoy the skilful art of king Chauhan. In the meantime, the poet described the distance and direction of the seat of Ghauri, to his master in the following verse:
Char Bans Chaubi Gag, ungal asat parman; Ta upar sultan hai, mat chuke Chauhan.
Prithvi Raj Chauhan shot Ghauri dead. And before body guards, Mir and Khan, could slay the king and the Chand Bardai, the latter killed each other with the help of daggers.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Sharma, Shiv Darshanlal (1999-10-02). Chand Bardai (html). Archived from the original on 2007-11-28. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
