The Rajatarangini and the Indian historical sense 

Some Indian scholars pointed out the importance of Rajatarangini 
written by Kalhana of Kashmir. It is not only a classic of Sanskrit 
narrative poetry but is the earliest extant history of Kashmir 
written in the middle of the 12th century, in the age when the 
crusaders of Europe were fighting in western Asia. It is a unique 
masterpiece of Kalhana, a blend of authentic chronicle and 
imaginative poetry inspired by the poet's passionate love of his 
exquisitely beautiful homeland. It was in 1892 that Pandit Durga 
Prasad published the Rajatarangini in a Sanskrit text form, followed 
by similar efforts made by Sir Aurel Stein. Stein brought out an 
English translation in two volumes in 1900 under the caption 
Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir based on a French translation done 
by Troyer during 1840-1852. 

The name of the book indicates the meaning as saga of the kings of 
Kashmir or river of kings. It is narrated in eight cantos, each canto 
being called a taranga or wave by the author. It is a continuous 
history of the kings of Kashmir from mythical time (1184 BC) to the 
date of its composition ie. 1148-1149. The colophon of the work 
informs us that its author Kalhana was the son of Champaka, the 
Minister of King Harsha of Kashmir (1088-1100). The Rajatarangini is 
the only Sanskrit work, with a historical perspective. 

To quote Jawaharlal Nehru, "Rajatarangini is the only work hitherto 
discovered in India having any pretensions to be considered as 
history. Such a book must necessarily have importance for every 
student of old Indian history and cultural." (sic-Ancient Indian 
History) 

The principle governing the original arrangement of hymns in the 
family mandalas seems to have been determined by three considerations—
deity, metre and the number of verses contained in the hymns 
concerned. 

It is a history and it is a poem, though the two perhaps go ill 
together, and in translations we see their unavoidable admixture of 
myth and reality combined together. Written eight-and-half centuries 
ago the work covers the history of over two millenniums. The early 
part of mythological phase is brief and vague and sometimes fanciful 
(first three taranginis) but Kalhana's period had been covered in a 
close up narrative. It is not at all a pleasant story as it was a 
period of romanticism and warfare side by side. Consider it as the 
romantic age in Indian history as testified to by the romances of 
Rajput princes and princesses, spread all over the Indian 
subcontinent. It was also an age of quixotic chivalry and knighthood 
wherein the people of Kashmir suffered under mighy feudal barons. It 
is too much of palace intrigue, murder, treason, tyranny and civil 
war. It is the story of autocracy and military oligarchy. In essence 
it is a story of the kings, the royal families and the nobility, not 
of common folk. No wonder it is given the title "River of Kings".