Evaluate Jonaraja's account of the reign of Zain-ul-Abidin.

Answer:

Jonaraja continued Kalhana's Rajatarangini into the fifteenth century and wrote as a contemporary of Zain-ul-Abidin, whose reign he describes at length. His account is valuable but must be read with allowance for his position at the Sultan's court.

The content of his account

• He continues the chronicle from Jayasimha to his own time, dying in 1459.
• He records Zain-ul-Abidin's tolerance and the reversal of Sikandar's persecutions.
• He describes the abolition of jizya and the return of exiled Brahmanas.
• He notes the Sultan's patronage of Sanskrit learning and of translation.
• He records public works, canals, bridges and the island of Zaina Lank.

Its value as a source

• He was a contemporary and an eyewitness with access to the court.
• He wrote in the established critical tradition of the Rajatarangini.
• He supplies detail on administration, famine relief and price control.
• His work was continued by his pupil Shrivara, giving a connected narrative.

Its limitations

• He was a court poet dependent on the Sultan's patronage and inclined to eulogy.
• His Brahmanical standpoint colours his treatment of earlier Muslim rulers.
• He lacks Kalhana's declared impartiality and critical rigour.
• Persian sources must be used alongside him for a rounded picture.

Its place in the tradition

• He consciously continued Kalhana's Rajatarangini, begun in the twelfth century.
• Shrivara, his pupil, carried the chronicle forward after his death.
• The series gives Kashmir an unbroken historical record unique in India.
• Persian works such as the Baharistan-i-Shahi supplement his testimony.

Jonaraja's account is therefore an indispensable contemporary source for Zain-ul-Abidin's reign, particularly for the Sultan's tolerance and cultural patronage. As historians of Kashmir note, its eulogistic tone requires discount, but its testimony from within the court gives it authority that no later source can match.