Udal of Mahoba

Last updated

Veer Udal of Mahoba, U.P., India MAHOBA, U.P. - allha.preview.jpg
Veer Udal of Mahoba, U.P., India

Udal is the name of a legendary 12th century general who appears in the Alha-Khand epic. [1] In the epic, Udal and his brother Alha serve in the army of the Chandela king Paramardi Deva (also known as Parmal or Parimal) of Mahoba. They belonged to the Banaphar clan, which are of Rajput and Ahir descent. [2] [3]

According to the Alha-Khand, Udal was born after the death of his father Dassraj, who was also a general, and was killed in the service of king Paramardi. The king subsequently raised Udal as his own son. [4] The epic describes how Udal was killed while fighting the invading army of Rai Pithora, also known as Prithviraj Chauhan, in a large battle at Mahoba; while the content of the ballads has been embellished, the battle has been attested by stone inscriptions at Madanpur, and took place at some point in 1182-1183. [5]

Related Research Articles

Bundeli or Bundelkhandi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Bundelkhand region of central India. It belongs to the Central Indo-Ayran languages and is part of the Western Hindi subgroup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajput</span> Social community of South Asia

Rajput is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Rajput covers various patrilineal clans historically associated with warriorhood: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. According to modern scholars, almost all Rajput clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Haryana</span>

Folk music of Haryana has two main forms: classical folk music of Haryana and desi folk music of Haryana. They take the form of ballads and pangs of parting of lovers, valor and bravery, harvest and happiness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prithviraj Chauhan</span> King of Ajmer (c. 1177–1192)

Prithviraja III, popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan or Rai Pithora, was a king from the Chauhan (Chahamana) dynasty who ruled the territory of Sapadalaksha, with his capital at Ajmer in present-day Rajasthan. Ascending the throne as a minor in 1177 CE, Prithviraj inherited a kingdom which stretched from Thanesar in the north to Jahazpur (Mewar) in the south, which he aimed to expand by military actions against neighbouring kingdoms, most notably defeating the Chandelas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chandelas of Jejakabhukti</span> Early medieval Hindu dynasty of India

The Chandelas of Jejakabhukti was an Indian dynasty in Central India. The Chandelas ruled much of the Bundelkhand region between the 9th and the 13th centuries. They belonged to the Chandel clan of the Rajputs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dhangar</span> Herding caste in India

Dhangar is a herding caste of people found in the Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh Rajasthan, himachal Pradesh, delhi, gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, haryana, punjab, Uttarakhand .They are referred as Gavli in southern Maharashtra, Goa and northern Karnataka, Golla in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and Gayeri in northern Maharashtra. Some Gavlis live in forested hill tracts of India's Western Ghats. Gavli, also known as Dhangar or Mhaske, and Gadariya is a sub-caste of Dhangar. However, there are many distinct Gavli castes in Maharashtra and Dhangar Gavli is one of them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahoba district</span> District of Uttar Pradesh in India

Mahoba district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India and Mahoba town is the district headquarters. Mahoba district is a part of Chitrakoot Division. The district occupies an area of 2884 km². It has a population of 875,958. As of 2011 it is the least populous district of Uttar Pradesh. Mahoba District is also known as Alha-Udal Nagari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orai</span> City in Uttar Pradesh, India

Orai is a city in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Jalaun District. All administrative offices of Jalaun District, including the District Collectorate, police, telecom and various other government organizations are located in this city. Orai received the award of 'Fastest Mover' Small City among India under Swachh Survekshan 2019, an annual cleanliness survey carried by the Quality Council of India.

Rajput is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Rajput covers various patrilineal clans historically associated with warriorhood: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. According to modern scholars, almost all Rajputs clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities.

Banaphar, also spelled Banafar and Banafer, is a clan native to the Indian subcontinent of mixed Ahir and Rajput descent.

Alha was a legendary general of the Chandel king Paramardideva, who fought Prithviraj Chauhan in 1182 CE. He is one of the main characters of the Alha-Khand ballad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rani Durgavati</span> Maharani of Gondwana

Rani Durgavati was the ruling Queen of Gondwana from 1550 until 1564. She was married to Dalpat Shah the son of the king Sangram Shah of the Garha Kingdom.

<i>Alha-Khand</i> Medieval Indian epic

The term Alha Khand is used to refer to poetic works in Hindi which consists of a number of ballads describing the brave acts of two 12th century Banaphar heroes, Alha and Udal, generals working for king Paramardi-Deva (Parmal) of Mahoba against Prithviraj Chauhan of Ajmer. The works has been entirely handed down by oral tradition and presently exists in many recensions, which differ from one another both in language and subject matter. The Bundeli, Bagheli, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Kannauji recensions are the most well known among these.

Yadav refers to a grouping of traditionally non-elite, peasant-pastoral communities or castes in India that since the 19th and 20th centuries have claimed descent from the mythological king Yadu as a part of a movement of social and political resurgence. The term Yadav now covers many traditional peasant-pastoral castes such as Ahirs of the Hindi belt and the Gavli of Maharashtra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thakur (title)</span> Historical feudal title of the Indian subcontinent

Thakur is a historical feudal title of the Indian subcontinent. It is also used as a surname in the present day. The female variant of the title is Thakurani or Thakurain, and is also used to describe the wife of a Thakur.

Veer Lorik is part of the Bhojpuri folklore of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. According to S.M. Pandey, it is considered to be the Ramayana by the Ahir. Veer Lorik is a divine character of the legend of the Ahir of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The Veer Lorik Stone on the banks of the Son River in the Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, contains a love story. He is sometimes known as the Lorikayan, after the folkloric tale of that name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinman Hardoul Singh</span>

Dinman Hardoul Singh or Lala Hardoul is a Hindu folk deity of Bundelkhand in India. He was the prince of Orchha and the son of maharaja Vir Singh Deo and the brother of Jhujhar Singh. He was born in 1664 and died in 1688 at the age of 24. A temple of Hardoul in Bundelkhand is a centre for pilgrims and according to local beliefs he is still alive and is worshipped as a deity.

Paramardi was a king of the Chandela dynasty of central India. He was the last powerful Chandela king, and ruled the Jejakabhukti region. Around 1182–83 CE, he was defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan, who raided the Chandela capital Mahoba. Paramardi managed to recover the Chandela power over the next few years, but was defeated by the Ghurid general Qutb ud-Din Aibak around 1202–03 CE.

Modern historians agree that Rajputs consisted of a mix of various different social groups and different varnas. Rajputisation explains the process by which such diverse communities coalesced into the Rajput community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khet Singh Khangar</span>

Garh Kundar Naresh Maharaja Khet Singh Khangar was the ruler of the Khangar Dynasty. He was born in the royal family of the King of Junagadh in the state of Gujarat (Saurashtra), India in 1140. He was the commander of Prithviraj Chauhan during Mahoba war.

References

  1. Schomer, Karine (1990). "The "Ālhā" Epic in Contemporary Performance". The World of Music. 32 (2): 58–80. JSTOR   43561259.
  2. Hiltebeitel, Alf (2009). Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics: Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits. University of Chicago Press. p. 163. ISBN   978-0-226-34050-0. 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.
  3. Crowley, Thomas (7 September 2020). Fractured Forest, Quartzite City: A History of Delhi and its Ridge. p. 277. ISBN   9789353885564. The Banaphars also identify themselves as Rajputs. Throughout this epic, though, they have various caste slurs hurled at them by higher-status Rajputs who claim that the Banaphar line is contaminated with the blood of Ahirs, a nomadic pastoral community.
  4. Mishra, Pt. Lalita Prasad (2007). Alhakhand (in Hindi) (15 ed.). Lucknow (India): Tejkumar Book Depot (Pvt) Ltd. pp. 1–11 (History of Mahoba).
  5. Mitra, Sisir Kumar (1977). The Early Rulers of Khajurāho. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 123. ISBN   9788120819979.