Chand Bardai

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Chand Bardai (circa 1200,September 30, 1149(1149-09-30)) 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 a worshipper of the goddess Saraswati, who gifted him with the 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 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, and 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.

Blindfolded Prithviraj was ridiculed by the Ghor and his soldiers and was asked to show his talent at spear throwing now. He agreed and on the day of the exhibition, guided by the instructions given in form of poetry by his friend and biographer Chandbardai, and listening to the voice of Ghor he threw his spear and killed him. The famous doha or couplet in Hindi is char bans chaubis gaj , angul asth praman, ta uper sultan hai, mat chuke chauhan. He is buried in Afghanistan where the local custom is to still stomp on the grave of Kafir king who killed their Sultan.