Question

The creation of Chandbardai which is also a first Hindi epic is
A.Prithviraj Raso
B.Harshacharita
C.Vikramorvasiyam
D. All of these

Answer 1

Hint: Chand Bardai, born in Lahore in 1148 was a court poet who acquired a lot of knowledge in language, grammar, astrology etc. His creation is considered to be the first epic in Hindi. He accompanied the King in his battles.

Complete answer:
The earliest manuscript of Prithviraj Raso composed by Chand Bardai was dated 1610 when found in Dharanojwali village of Gujarat. It was based on the life of Prithviraj Chauhan, the son of King of Ajmer, Someshwar Chauhan and Queen Karnapura Devi. It contained archaic language and the shorter recension which may have been composed during the end of 16th century. Scholars like Narottamdas swami, Namvar Singh, and Cynthia Talbot chose date the text to the 16th century (the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar) based on the fact that the narratives summarizing the plot of Prithviraj Raso are found in Persian Ain-i-Akbari and Sanskrit language text Surjana-charita. On the other hand, as per R. V. Somani, the original Prithviraj Raso was composed around 1235 CE. The present version has the Brajbhasha dialect with Rajasthani peculiarities. It is called Pingal. Overall, the text contains imaginary tales and historical facts with an exaggerated dramatic effect.
So, the correct answer is Option A.

Note: Prithviraj Raso isn’t considered to have been written in the time of Prithviraj, but much later, as per the modern scholars. By the 19th century, several additions were made to the original text under the reign of Rajput rulers. Today, it exists in four recessions and isn’t considered to be historically accurate.