[RAS Tod MS 131] Kacchavāha-kī vaṃśāvalī

Kacchavāha-kī vaṃśāvalī [RAS Tod MS 131]

Copy completed ca. 1800 AD

43 f.; 24.5 x 17 cm.

Lt. Col. James Tod, gift, 182-? Text in Rajasthani Hindi, in Rajasthani script.

Paper; text in black ink, with stanza endings and edges in red. Text consists of a metrical sketch of the history of the Kacchavāha dynasty, a stylised poetic description of some of the main rulers of the Kacchavaha clan of Rajputs. The text covers a line of ancestors from early mythology down to Sodh of Narwar and his son, Dulha Rai. At the end of the genealogy of the Kacchavahas there are 5 pages of a history/morality tale about Nausher Khan Adil. Hooja notes that the work uses a selection of traditional Indian metres, including chanda, lalita-chanda, and other styles of chands, doha, choupai, kavita and kundali, and that it has the heading ‘Bansabali-Kacchavaha-ki’ in Rajasthani script. Inscription on flyleaf: ‘Kutchwaha Bunsâolee. Oodipaur May 31st 1819. J. Tod’.

Tod Manuscript Collection. See L. D. Barnett ‘Catalogue of the Tod Collection of Indian manuscripts in the possession of the Royal Asiatic Society’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1940, Pt. 2, p.157. See also unpublished catalogue of the RAS Tod manuscripts by Dr. Rima Hooja, 2002, held in the RAS library.