Alha

Alha of the Banaphar Rajput clan was the famous general of the great Chandel king Paramdidev (also known as Parmal), who fought Prithviraj Chauhan in 1182 CE, immortalised in the Alha-Khand ballad.

The Origin of Alha

Alha and Udal were children of the Dasraj, a successful commander of the Chandel king Parmal. He belonged to the community of Banaphars, so called because of their origin from the forest region.

According to the Bhavishya Purana, a text with several interpolated sections that cannot be reliably dated, Alha's mother, Devaki, was a member of the Ahir caste. The Ahirs are among the "older, pastoralist tradition" of peasants who used Rajputising idioms to express their values, but were regarded as "spurious Rajputs" by those who stressed genealogical ascription over achievement.

The Bhavishya Purana says that when Mahpati (Mahil) states that Ahlada (Alha) has come to be of "low family" (kule hinatvamagatah), it is because his mother is an Arya Abhiri (Aryabhiri: means "Aryan" Ahiri). Here, however the story is foundational and told not at this point in Alhda's courtship but in connection with his mother's own marriage. The two maidens are indeed Ahiris, daughters of Gopalak (cowherd) king Dalvahana and accustomed to daily tethering of buffaloes. They seize two buffaloes not in forest but in front of many kings during great Chandika homa performed by their father, when the assembled kings themselves find the buffaloes too much to handle. Dalvahana, at the command of Durga, then gives the older daughter Devaki (Devi) to Desaraja (Dasraj) and the younger daughter Brahmi to Vatsaraja (Bachraj).