Kalhana
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Kalhana (कल्हण) (c. 12th century) a Kashmiri Brahmin was the celebrated author of Rajatarangini, Kashmir's history. He wrote this book during 1147-1149. His father Champaka was the minister in the King's court.
Kalhana is regarded to be Kashmir's first historian. Rajatarangini is one of the most valuable sources for Indian history. Kalhana begins by expressing his views on how history ought to be written.
[edit] How history ought to be written
(Note taken from a post by Y. Malaiya, used with permission)
Kalhana in his opening Taranga of Rajatarangini (1148/9 AD), presents his views on how history ought to be written. From Stein's translation.
- Fairness: Verse 7. That noble-minded author is alone worthy of praise whose word, like that of a judge, keeps free from love or hatred in relating the facts of the past.
- Cite earlier authors: Verse 11. The oldest extensive works containing the royal chronicles [of Kashmir] have become fragmentary in consequence of [the appearance of] Suvrata's composition, who condensed them in order that (their substance) might be easily remembered.
- Verse 12. Suvrata's poem, though it has obtained celebrity, does not show dexterity in the exposition of the subject-matter, as it is rendered troublesome [reading] by misplaced learning.
- Verse 13. Owing to a certain want of care, there is not a single part in Ksemendra's "List of Kings" (Nrpavali) free from mistakes, though it is the work of a poet.
- Verse 14. Eleven works of former scholars containing the chronicles of the kings, I have inspected, as well as the [Purana containing the] opinions of the sage Nila.
- Verse 15. By looking at the inscriptions recording the consecretations of temples and grants by former kings, at laudatory inscriptions and at written works, the trouble arising from many errors has been overcome.
