Historical Story Vengeance of Alha-Udal - Tales

This is the story of 1165, at that time in Mahoba, Chandel king Parmardidev ruled. He was famous by the name of Raja Parmar. Raja Parmar was one of the most powerful and great Hindu Chandel emperors of central India. In 1167 AD, he defeated the Parihar king of Orai and married the princess Malhana, and got his two elder sisters Deval and Tilka married to his commander and distant brother Dasraj and Vatsaraja. All these sisters had a brother, whose name was Mama Mahil. Mahil was a very devious person.

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Raja Parmar had three sons, and commander Dasraj and Vatsaraja got two sons each, who were named Alha and Udal and Malkhan and Sulkhan. Raja Parmar was a powerful emperor of central India at that time. Under the leadership of his powerful commanders Dasraj and Vatsaraja, he conquered the kingdoms around him. The boundary of his kingdom started touching Mandu, at that time the king of Mandu was Jambhe, whose son's name was Raikaringa. 

Seeing the growing power of the Mahoba kingdom, Rai Karinga attacked the Mahoba kingdom with a huge army. On the other hand, the commanders Daksharaj and Vatsraj also left from the Mahoba kingdom with their armies. A fierce battle took place between the two armies on the battlefield. In this war, Daksharaj and Vatsraj showed such valour that the army of Mandu started retreating. This war went on for several days, but the army of Mandu was unable to face the valour of Daksharaj and Vatsraj.

Seeing his army losing, the prince of Mandu, Rai Karinga, played a trick and attacked the army of Mahoba at night. At that time, the army of Mahoba was sleeping in its camp. During this attack, both the commanders of the Mahoba army, Daksharaj and Vatsraj, were arrested. Both of them were arrested and taken to Mandu. In Mandu, both those commanders were given a terrible punishment and they were ground in a mill and their heads were separated from their bodies. After this, the heads of both of them were hung on the highest branch of the banyan tree.

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By hanging the heads of the two generals of Mahoba's army on a banyan tree, the kingdom of Mandu had given the message that whoever will be hostile towards the kingdom of Mandu will have the same fate. The names of the sons of General Daksharaj were Alha and Udal. Alha was already born, while Udal was in his mother's womb at the time of his father's martyrdom. The day Udal was born, the earth of Mahoba sank two and a half feet due to an earthquake. Udal's mother Deval thought that his father died as soon as he was in the womb, and a terrible earthquake occurred at his birth.

Deval considered this a bad omen, so she wanted to abandon Udal. Therefore, Queen Malhana raised Udal, Queen Malhama is also considered Udal's foster mother. General Vatsraj's wife Tilka Devi gave birth to Malkhan and Sulkhan, both these brothers also became valiant warriors like Alha and Udal. During the war, Malkhan used to go to war sitting in a huge chariot driven by many horses, and his brother Sulkhan used to be the charioteer of his brother's chariot. Both the brothers together used to show such valour in the war that any army would get scared seeing them.

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Rani Malhana also had three sons, whose names were Brahmajeet, Indrajeet and Ranjeet. Apart from these, the Rajpurohit of Mahoba had a son, whose name was Deva. He was the best friend of Alha-Udal and Malkhan-Sulkhan. Thus all these princes, Alha-Udal, Malkhan-Sulkhan, Brahmajeet-Indrajeet-Ranjeet and Deva, all of them were growing up gradually. Later on, all these princes became mighty warriors.

All these princes were not told in their childhood, how their father and uncle had died a martyrdom in the kingdom of Mandu. No one told them this because all these brothers had so much enthusiasm, anger and strength that the day they would come to know what had happened to their father and uncle, they would all attack the Mandu kingdom on that very day.

One day Udal was practicing his strength in the gymnasium, where he defeated his uncle Mahil's son badly. He went to his father Mahil crying and told him everything. Uncle Mahil got angry on hearing this, he was already annoyed with all his nephews. He went and scolded Udal, he said to Udal, if you have so much strength, then why don't you go to Mandu and bring the skulls of your father and uncle, hanging on the banyan tree, which have been waiting for their last rites for years.

Hearing this, Alha-Udal were stunned, they could not understand what this uncle was talking about. Then uncle Mahil said,  the son who does not kill his father's enemy, even the vultures do not eat his meat in the end. Hearing this, Alha Udal's body was on fire. Both the brothers went to their mother Deval in great anger and asked her, how did uncle tell us this? We were told that our father had died in the war, but uncle is telling something else.

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At first, mother Deval hesitated to tell, but when Alha Udal insisted, she finally had to tell that your father and uncle were treacherously murdered by Mandu's prince Rai Karinga and their heads were hanged on the banyan tree in Mandu's fort, which are still hanging there. Hearing this, Alha-Udal's blood boiled. They both wanted to attack Mandu at that very moment, so they reached King Parmar's court to take orders for the war.

King Parmar knew that it was not easy to conquer the fort of Mandu. He told both the brothers that all of you princes are still young, so wait for the right time. When the time comes, we will definitely attack Mandu. Alha Udal wanted to attack Mandu at that time. Hearing such words from the Maharaj, their anger reached the seventh sky. Udal roared in that full assembly and said, Maharaj, what are you talking about age? A dog lives for twelve years, a jackal lives for thirteen years, a lion lives for sixteen years, and if a Kshatriya lives for more than eighteen years without fighting a war, then shame on his life.

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Hearing this, the blood of all the generals and brave warriors present in the Rajya Sabha boiled. Udal's roar had infused the heroic spirit in everyone's heart. All the warriors wanted to take revenge for the betrayal that happened years ago. Seeing this, King Parmar ordered an attack on Mandu. The army was organized, Alha-Udal, Malkhan-Sulkhan, the king's son Brahmajeet and the royal priest's son Deva got ready to go to this war. All the brave brothers headed towards Mandu with the army of Mahoba.

When they all reached a forest near the border of Mandu, Deva, who was the wisest among them, said, it is not so easy to conquer the fort of Mandu, before attacking the fort of Mandu, we should find out the weakness of this fort. Everyone asked how to find out the weaknesses of this fort, then Deva suggested, we should inspect this fort before the war. Then a plan was made, according to which, Brahmajeet camped in the same forest with the army, and Alha-Udal, Malkhan-Sulkhan and Deva, these five disguised themselves as sadhus, and moved towards the fort of Mandu.

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There was a city before the fort of Mandu, that city had a very huge and strong gate, through which only one could enter the city. A contingent of Mandu's army was always stationed at this gate, when those five people started entering the city, the soldiers asked them for their introduction. Deva among them said, we are all Yogis living in the Himalayas, we always keep travelling, we are going on a journey from the Himalayas to South India. Your beautiful city falls on the way, so we have a great desire to see it, that is why we have come to your city.

Sages and saints were greatly respected in Mandu, so the soldiers allowed all of them to enter the city. As soon as all of them entered the city, at a short distance there was that huge banyan tree, on that tree even today the skulls of Daksharaj and Bachchraj were hanging. Seeing this, Udal's blood boiled, he forgot that he had come in the disguise of a saint, he wanted to fight with the soldiers at that very moment, but Alha and others somehow pacified Udal.

The soldiers presented all the five saints in the royal palace inside the fort, there everyone was very impressed by them. Maharaj Jambe's queen asked the saints to sing something. Alha-Udal and other brothers recited beautiful songs in the court, which everyone liked very much. Maharaj Jambe wanted to give donations to the sages, but the sages refused to take it. The sages said, Maharaj, what will we do with the dakshina, we have heard a lot of praises of your fort, so we want to see your fort once, the king happily accepted.

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Princess Vijayakumari of Mandu herself took the sages to visit the fort, finally they all reached a secret place in the fort. This was a path, which opened into the Babri forest from within the fort. This path was used to get out of the fort in times of crisis. The princess did not want to tell the sages about this secret path, so she moved ahead without giving information about this path.

Then Alha asked her, Princess, you did not tell about this path, where does this path open. Hearing this, the princess became suspicious of the intentions of the sadhus and she took out her sword and ran to kill them. All the sadhus somehow confronted the princess without weapons. The princess attacked the sadhus many times but the sadhus were successful in saving themselves. In such a scuffle, the princess fell unconscious. After this, all the sadhus saw the opportunity and were successful in getting out of the fort.

Now all the brothers had received the secret information about the fort, they all reached Brahmjeet who was standing with the army in the forest, and told him the whole plan. All the brothers attacked the fort of Mandu with their army. On the other side, Prince Rai Karinga and Prince Suraj from Mandu also came to the battlefield with the army. A fierce battle broke out between the two armies. Soldiers were fighting with soldiers, horsemen were fighting with horsemen, elephant riders were fighting with elephant riders, in the middle of the war, all the brothers divided their army into different groups and surrounded the army of Mandu from many sides.

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All the brothers showed amazing war skills in the war, the army of Mandu also fought well with the army of Mahoba. While fighting, Alha and Rai Karinga came face to face. Rai Karinga said to Alha, I had ground your father and uncle in a mill and hung their heads from a banyan tree, now it is the turn of all of you brothers. I will enhance the beauty of that banyan tree by cutting off the heads of all of you. Hearing this, Alha's eyes turned bloodshot, a fierce battle took place between the two.

Both of them attacked each other fatally, but Alha proved to be superior to Rai Karinga in war skills, Rai Karinga's feet started faltering, that is why he left Alha and went to Udal to fight. Udal was waiting for this, Udal seriously injured Rai Karinga in the war. Seeing this, his soldiers took him away from the battlefield, after this Rai Karinga's younger brother Suraj took charge. He was also a mighty warrior, he attacked Udal, Udal also gave him a befitting reply, a fierce battle broke out between the two.

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Both seemed equal in war skills, for many hours, the swords of both kept clashing with each other, no one was less than the other, both were attacking each other fatally, and also knew the counter to the attack of the opponent. There was such a fierce battle between the two that both the armies left their battle and started watching the battle between Udal and Suraj. Seeing such valor of Prince Suraj, Alha also praised his war skills. Both the warriors got tired while fighting. The battle remained indecisive till the evening, neither Udal nor Suraj were less. Both proved to be equal warriors.

The battle started again on the second day, the next day Rai Karinga was again ready to lead his army. A fierce battle broke out between the two armies again, both the armies attacked each other, Rai Karinga fought with Alha, and Suraj fought with Udal. This time Suraj attained martyrdom at the hands of Udal, and on the other hand Rai Karinga was also killed at the hands of Alha. As soon as both the princes fell, the feet of the army of Mandu were shaken, and the soldiers ran towards the fort. After this, the army of Mahoba surrounded the fort of Mandu from all sides.

Inside the fort, King Jambhe panicked after hearing the news of the death of his princes. Seeing no way out, King Jambhe came out with a contingent of his army through a secret passage inside the fort. Brahmajit was standing with his army at the other end of the secret passage. There was a fierce fight between King Jambhe and Brahmajit. Brahmajit was injured in this fight. On receiving the news, Udal immediately reached there and fought with King Jambhe. In this fight, King Jambhe was killed by Udal.

As soon as King Jambe died, Mahoba's army had won the war. There were cheers for Alha-Udal, Malkhan Sulkhan and Brahmajeet everywhere. Then Alha and Udal took the heads of Rai Karinga and King Jambhe and presented them at their mother's feet and told her that today they have avenged their father's death. In this way, Alha-Udal fulfilled the promise they had made to their mother Deval.

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