A court epic written at Ajmer in the months between Prithviraja III's victory at Tarain in 1191 and his defeat and death in 1192. It is the only contemporary Sanskrit witness to the Chahamana court on the eve of the conquest: the king's ancestry, his ministers, the Ghurid threat as seen from Ajmer. Nothing in it reaches 1200, but it fixes who the Chahamanas were and what they had held when Aibak and the Chahamana remnant at Ranthambor (Govindaraja and his heirs) faced each other in 1200. Only a fragment survives, with a 15th-century commentary by Jonaraja.
About this source
- Title
- Prithviraja Vijaya
- Author
- Jayanaka (a Kashmiri poet at the Chahamana court)
- Author's dates
- active about 1190
- Written
- about 1191 to 1192, left unfinished
- Language
- Sanskrit
- Covers
- the Chahamana dynasty of Ajmer to about 1191
- Kind
- Poem
No complete English translation exists. The Prithviraj Raso attributed to Chand Bardai is a much later (16th to 17th century) legendary poem and should not be used as a source for 1200.
Where to read it
Editions
- S. K. Belvalkar (ed.), Prthviraja Vijaya: a Sanskrit epic with the commentary of Jonaraja, Bibliotheca Indica (Calcutta, 1914), Sanskrit text
- A later Sanskrit edition with Jonaraja's commentary (scan with missing pages)