पृथ्वीराजविजय महाकाव्यम् (कवि जयानक - अजमेर चौहान साम्राज्य एवं सम्राट् पृथ्वीराज इतिहास)

3
twelve verses¹ can be traced in the Alaṅkārodāharaṇa of
the same author. Jayaratha describes himself as the great-
great-grandson² of a brother of Śivaratha, a minister
of King Uchchala of Kashmir (1101–1111 A. D.)³.
This would bring Jayaratha himself to about 1200 A.D.
Now it is reasonable to suppose that if verses from
the work of a writer are found quoted in the works of
another writer, even if the two be contemporary, some
years must elapse in order to make the former's work
known to the latter. Thus at a very conservative
estimate we may put the date of the composition
between the years 1191 and 1193 A. D.
The commentary of the poem, here offered, is by
Jonarāja, the son of Nonarāja and grandson of
Lolarāja, a famous author who wrote the second Rāja-
taraṅgiṇī, and commented on the Kirātārjunīya and
the Śrīkaṇṭhacharita of Maṅkha. His commentary on
the Kirātārjunīya is dated 1449 A. D. and the present
commentary on the Pṛthvīrājavijaya must have been
written, according to Dr. Bühler, between 1450 and
1475 A. D. It seems that in Jonarāja's time,
the Pṛthvīrājavijaya must have been a popular work
among the scholars, as this commentator discusses
various readings of the text. As the text and the
commentary are presented in the same Ms., portions
of the commentary have also been lost on account of
the defective condition of the Ms. The commentary,
however, has been helpful in restoring the missing
text in certain places.
The early history of the Chauhānas, given by
Colonel Tod in his Annals and Antiquities of
Rajasthan according to the bardic chronicles and the
Pṛthvīrāja Rāso of Chanda, is entirely unreliable.
But the work under notice is quite reliable for the
history of medieval India and particularly of the
(1) I. 4; V. 50, 103, 130, 143, 173; VI. 4; VII. 31, 57, IX. 59;
XII. 4 and 11 of the present edition
(2) Buhler's Report, appendix II, pp. cli-cliv.
(3) M. A. Stein: A Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmīr, Vol. I.
Introduction, p. 138