Abstract:

This article is primarily concerned with asking how we can read Kalhaṇa’s Rājataraṅgiṇī as historians, other than by mining it for facts and names or using it as a proof of some South Asian given. I conduct my investigation on a relatively small sample, a well-defined narrative sequence of about 100 verses from the fourth chapter, or ‘wave’, of the River of Kings (4.402–502), which narrates King Jayāpīḍa’s first military campaign. I try to demonstrate that this section depicts a dramatic shift in Kashmir’s investment in learning and the arts. Thus I argue that the Rājataraṅgiṇī, despite its unifying poetic and moralistic framework, is acutely attuned to changes in Kashmir’s history, including this region’s special cultural and intellectual history, a topic that is clearly dear to Kalhaṇa’s heart.