When we think about history, we often imagine dusty textbooks filled with dates and names that we memorized in school. But history is so much more than that-it's the living, breathing story of who we are as a people. It's the foundation upon which our entire national identity rests. For far too many years, the incredible story of our motherland Bharat has been told through a distorted lens, one that has systematically worked to make our greatest heroes appear smaller and our magnificent past seem less glorious than it truly was. The tale of Emperor Prithviraj Chauhan-a man who embodied everything we admire about courage and resistance-has become a battlefield in this ongoing struggle for historical truth. This book represents our determined effort to set the record straight. What you'll find in these pages isn't just another rehashing of what foreign scholars or colonial-era writers have told us about ourselves. Instead, this is our conscious return to the authentic sources of our own civilization-the texts, traditions, and stories that our ancestors carefully preserved and passed down through generations. This is us finally taking back control of our own narrative.
The Distortion of History: A Tale of Two Narratives
The prevailing academic consensus on Prithviraj's life largely rests on a fragile foundation, built upon a skewed interpretation of historical texts. As the preceding research has meticulously shown, the dominant narrative was thrust upon us in the late I 9th century. Until then, the Prithviraj Raso, a vibrant epic composed by the court poet Chand Vardayi, was the most popular and widely accepted account of the emperor's life. It was a cultural touchstone, a symbol of our shared memory, resonating with the martial pride and national spirit of the people.
However, the arrival of foreign scholars, like the European archaeologist Dr. Buhler, catalyzed a paradigm shift. In 1875-76, Buhler discovered the Prithviraj Vijay Mahakavyam, a text that was largely unknown in the public domain. Seizing upon this find, a new historical framework was proposed, one that systematically discredited the Raso. This effort was significantly aided by the influential writer Kaviraj Shyamaldas, who, in a now-infamous article from 1886, declared the Raso to be a "false and fake work." This critique, as the author of this book argues, was not born from a purely academic motive but was likely influenced by professional rivalry and deep-seated caste conflicts between the Bhaats and Charans of the time. The Raso's immense popularity dwarfed Shyamaldas's own work, Veer Vinod, and it is plausible that this competitive animosity provided a powerful impetus for his criticism.
From the point of view of information related to the history of Emperor Prithviraj Chauhan, mainly two texts are considered to be ancient. One is "Prithviraj Raso" which was composed by Chand Varadai and the other book is "Prithviraj Vijay Mahakavyam" which was composed by Kashmir's poet Jayanak. All the remaining texts are later texts. Like Hammir Mahakavyam Vikram Samvat written by Naychandra Suri, 1460 year 1403 AD, Surjan Charit Mahakavyam Vikram Samvat 1692 year 1635 AD written by Chandrashekhar. Similarly, there are some texts in which incidents related to Prithviraj have been mentioned, such as Prithviraj Prabandh Vikram Samvat 1290 AD 1133 AD Lipikaal Vikram Samvat 1428-1471 under Puratan Prabandh Sangrah, Merutung Krit Prabandh Chintamani Vikram Samvat 1361 AD 1304 AD, Raj Darshini (Jammu ki Twarikh) written by Ganesh Das Chandra etc.
Apart from these Indian sources, there are descriptions of Persian Twarikhs which are almost contemporary, only Farishta's Twarikh is of later date i.e. after 1606 AD and the other Ain-e-Akbari is also of the first half of the 18th century. The surprising thing is that there are different descriptions of the events related to Prithviraj in the contemporary Persian Twarikhs. They do not match at all. Therefore, we will not discuss them here.
I will mainly present my views before you on Indian sources only. These sources are Prithviraj Raso written by Chand Vardayi and Prithviraj Vijay Mahakavyam written by Jayanak.
Prithviraj Raso written by Chand Vardayi was the most accepted and popular book in the country till 1893 AD. But European historian and archaeologist Dr. Buhler, while searching for ancient Sanskrit texts during his Kashmir tour in 1875-76, found a birch bark copy of Prithviraj Vijay Mahakavyam written by Jayanak. Scientific study of Prithviraj Vijay Mahakavyam was presented by Prof. Buhler's able disciple James Morrison. He published his findings in 1893 in Vienna Oriental Journal Part 7 on page 188-92.
Kaviraj Shyamaldas, who wrote Veer Vinod on the history of Mewar, published an article in the mouthpiece of the Rai Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1886 AD in which he described Prithviraj Raso as a false and fake work. He wrote in his article that the era and the recorded events in Rasau are historically fake. Muraridaan, grandson of the famous Jodhpur writer Bankidas, also supported Shyamaldas to the fullest. Those who supported Kaviraj Shyamaldas were Shri Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha and Babu Ram Narayan Ji Dugar of Udaipur. Colonel Todd clearly did not support Kaviraj Shyamaldas. Shri Ojha and Shri Dugar also did not call Rasau a fake book. They wanted to solve the problems of Rasau.
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