Alha

According to the legend, Alha and Udal were children of the Dasraj, a successful commander in the army of Chandel king Parmal. They belonged to the Banaphar clan, which are of mixed Ahir and Rajput descent,[1][2][3][4][5] Purana states that Mahil a Rajput and an enemy of Alha and Udal said that Alha has come to be of a different family (kule htnatvamagatah) because his mother is an Aryan Ahir.[6]

The Bhavishya Purana, a Sanskrit text, states that Alha's mother was called Devaki and was a member of the Ahir caste. The Ahirs are among the "oldest pastoralists" and were rulers of Mahoba.[7]

In addition to the Aalha Khand and the Bhavishya Purana, the story of Alha is also found in a number of medieval manuscripts of the Prithviraj Raso. There is also a belief that the story was originally written by Jagnik, bard of Mahoba, but no manuscript has been found. [8]

• Udal of Mahoba

• Claus, Peter J.; Diamond, Sarah; Mills, Margaret Ann (2003). South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka Special -Reference. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-93919-5.
• Crowley, Thomas (2020). Fractured Forest, Quartzite City A History of Delhi and Its Ridge. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9789353885564.
• Hiltebeitel, Alf (1999). Rethinking India's oral and classical epics: Draupadī among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226340500.
• Hiltebeitel, Alf (2009). When the Goddess was a Woman Mahābhārata Ethnographies : Essays. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9789004193802.
• Mayaram, Shail (2022). The Secret Life of Another Indian Nationalism Transitions from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108832571.
• Talbot, Cynthia (2016). The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Cauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000. Cambridge University Press. p. 203. ISBN 9781107118560.

• Mishra, Pt. Lalita Prasad (2007). Alhakhand (in Hindi) (15 ed.). Lucknow (India): Tejkumar Book Depot (Pvt) Ltd. p. 614.