Chand Bardai

Chand Bardai Biography

Chand Bardai was a Hindu barot from Lahore and the court poet of the king Prithviraj III Chauhan. He was also a member of the inner circle of the king. Bardai composed the Prithviraj Raso, an epic poem in Hindi telling the life history of Prithviraj. Only a few parts of the original manuscript are available now and quite a few authors added to it. It had 10,000 stanzas in the original. In the available manuscripts added by several authors, scholars argue that a 1400 stanza poem is the real "Prithivraj Raso". Bardai was a great devotee of the goddess Saraswati.

Chand Bardai was born on September 30, 1149 and died in the year 1200. He mastered Sanskrit grammar, literature, astrology, prosody and the Puranas. He could speak different dialects of Hindi like - Abhiri, Autkali, Chandali, Dravirhini, Shkari, Swali and Vijaitia. He married twice - Kamla and Gauran and had 10 children in total. Prithviraj Raso is his major work which was compiled in the archaic form of Brajbhasa. This work is a major reference about the social and clan structure of the Kshatriya communities of northern India. This work included his master’s achievements and the historical accounts and had nearly 100,000 stanzas. About 30,000 stanzas of this work available now, has been translated to English by Colonel Tod.

Chand Bardai was an influential person of the kingdom and belonged to the inner circle. He used to accompany the king during battles fought and was a great friend of him. In the second battle of Tarain in 1192, when Pritviraj lost and captured by Mohammad Ghori, Chand Bardai accompanied him. Though the king was blinded, Chand Bardai played a significant role to escape and kill Ghori. These events were later recorded by his son.

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Updated: February 12, 2014