Alha and Udal were children of the Dasraj, a successful commander of the army of Chandel king Parmal. They belonged to the Banaphar community, described as of mixed Ahir and Rajput background. and fought against Rajputs such as Prithvi Raj Chauhan and Mahil. Purana states that Mahil a Rajput and an enemy of Alha and Udal said that Alha has come to be of a different family because his mother is an Aryan Ahir. According to the Bhavishya Purana, a text with several interpolated sections that cannot be reliably dated, Alha's mother, Devaki, was a member of the Ahir caste. The Ahirs are among the "oldest pastoralists" and were rulers of Mahoba. The Bhavishya Purana further adds that it is not only the mothers of Alha and Udal who are Ahirs, but their paternal grandmother from Baksar are also Ahir, who entered the family with a blessing of Devi chandika that come not from wrestling buffaloes but from her nine-year vow to the nine Durgas and hence the Ahirs were natural relatives of the family. Some of this checks out with the Elliot's Alha, where the gopalaka King Dalvahana is called Dalpat, King ofGwalior. he is still the two girls' father, but merely gives them to Dasraj who was an Ahir and Bachraj when Parmal requested him. The Queen Malhna insists that King Parmal reward Dashraj and Bachraj with brides from within the Chandel land. King Dalpat of Gwalior volunteers his daughters Devi and Birma Udal's mother. Queen Malhna welcomes Devi to Mahoba by placing the nine lakh chain around her neck and also gives Birma a necklace. King Parmal then gives new Banaphar families a village where they bear and raise their sons named Alha and Udal. Alha is one of the heroes of the Alha-Khand poem, popularly recited in the Bundelkhand region of India. It may be based on a workMahoba Khand which has been published with the title Parmal Raso.
Folklore
Alha is an oral epic, the story is also found in a number of medieval manuscripts of the Prithviraj Raso and the Bhavishya Purana. There is also a belief that the story was originally written by Jagnik, bard of Mahoba, but no manuscript has yet been found. Karine Schomer depicted Alha in South Asian Folklore as:
