Do you consider the Rajatarangini of Kalhana to be a reliable source of the political history of Kashmir? Why?

Answer:

Kalhana's Rajatarangini, composed in Sanskrit in about 1148-49, is widely regarded as the nearest approach to critical history in early India. It is a substantially reliable source for the political history of Kashmir, especially for the centuries closest to the author.

Grounds for regarding it as reliable

• Kalhana consulted inscriptions, coins, land grants, monuments and earlier chronicles.
• He states in his introduction that the historian must be free of love and hatred.
• He criticises kings, including his own patrons, and records their vices frankly.
• His chronology is systematic, and later reigns are dated with fair precision.
• He describes administration, revenue, factions (damaras) and famine in concrete detail.

Its limitations

• The early portions rest on legend and give fabulous reign-lengths.
• He accepts supernatural causation, miracles and the working of karma.
• His Brahmanical and Kashmiri standpoint colours some judgements.
• He is far more accurate for the period nearest his own time than for remote antiquity.

One may therefore consider it reliable with due care, particularly for the later dynasties. As historians of Kashmir affirm, Kalhana's use of documentary evidence and his declared impartiality make the Rajatarangini genuinely historical in method, provided its legendary opening sections and its providential explanations are discounted.