, Chandel

_Rajput, Chandel._--An important clan of Rajputs, of which a
small number reside in the northern Districts of Saugor, Damoh and
Jubbulpore, and also in Chhattisgarh. The name is derived by Mr. Crooke
from the Sanskrit _chandra_, the moon. The Chandel are not included in
the thirty-six royal races, and are supposed to have been a section
of one of the indigenous tribes which rose to power. Mr. V.A. Smith
states that the Chandels, like several other dynasties, first came into
history early in the ninth century, when Nannuka Chandel about A.D. 831
overthrew a Parihar chieftain and became lord of the southern parts of
Jejakabhukti or Bundelkhand. Their chief towns were Mahoba and Kalanjar
in Bundelkhand, and they gradually advanced northwards till the Jumna
became the frontier between their dominions and those of Kanauj. They
fought with the Gujar-Parihar kings of Kanauj and the Kalachuris of
Chedi, who had their capital at Tewar in Jubbulpore, and joined in
resisting the incursions of the Muhammadans. In A.D. 1182 Parmal, the
Chandel king, was defeated by Prithwi Raja, the Chauhan king of Delhi,
after the latter had abducted the Chandel's daughter. This was the
war in which Alha and Udal, the famous Banaphar heroes, fought for the
Chandels, and it is commemorated in the Chand-Raisa, a poem still well
known to the people of Bundelkhand. In A.D. 1203 Kalanjar was taken
by the Muhammadan Kutb-ud-Din Ibak, and the importance of the Chandel
rulers came to an end, though they lingered on as purely local chiefs
until the sixteenth century. The Chandel princes were great builders,
and beautified their chief towns, Mahoba, Kalanjar and Khajuraho with
many magnificent temples and lovely lakes, formed by throwing massive
dams across the openings between the hills. [507] Among these were
great irrigation works in the Hamirpur District, the forts of Kalanjar
and Ajaighar, and the noble temples at Khajuraho and Mahoba. [508]
Even now the ruins of old forts and temples in the Saugor and Damoh
Districts are attributed by the people to the Chandels, though many
were in fact probably constructed by the Kalachuris of Chedi.

Mr. Smith derives the Chandels either from the Gonds or Bhars, but
inclines to the view that they were Gonds. The following considerations
tend, I venture to think, to favour the hypothesis of their origin
from the Bhars. According to the best traditions, the Gonds came from
the south, and practically did not