22 
V. A. Smith —History of Bundelkhand. 
[No. 1, 
Parmal was certainly defeated and expelled from Mahoba by Raja 
Pirthiraj of Delhi in 1182 A. D., and the tale of the conflict as told by 
Chand has captivated the popular imagination and has become the theme 
of innumerable songs and legends throughout Upper India. 
Chand would have us believe that the defeat was so crushing and 
overwhelming, that only 200 of Parmal’s followers escaped destruction, 
but his story is manifestly a gross exaggeration, for twenty years later 
Parmal was able to make a “desperate resistance” against Kutb-ud-din, and 
was the master of great wealth, which became the spoil of his Musalman 
conqueror. 
The heroes of Chand’s Mahoba Khand are the miraculously endowed 
brother heroes, Alha and Udal, and the poet, in order to enhance their 
glory, depicts Parmal as a weak coward, swayed by the treacherous counsels 
of Mahil Parihar. All this is probably pure myth, for if Parmal could 
make a “ desperate resistance in the field” in 1202, it is not likely that he 
would have sought personal safety in craven flight in 1182. 
It is not known whether or not Parmal succeeded in retaining during 
any part of his reign the territories near the Narbada, which had been 
conquered by his predecessor Madana Varmma Deva, but he certainly 
cannot have retained them after the loss of Mahoba in 1182. 
The victory of Pirthiraj may not have been so overwhelming as it is 
represented by legend to have been, but it certainly marks an epoch in 
Bundelkhand history, and after 1182 the Chandels seem to have sunk to 
the position of small local Rajas, their degradation being consummated by 
Kutb-ud-din’s raid in 1202. 
I therefore consider 1182 as the date of the close of the Chandel 
period, that is to say, of the period during which the Chandels were the 
leading power in Bundelkhand, and during which they wrought works 
deserving to be held in remembrance. 
The few and indistinct existing notices of Parmal’s obscure successors 
will be discussed in Part III of this paper. 
