Kalhana & History Jitendra Kumar

Kalhana & History: Historical Issues to His ‘Rajatarangini’

Abstract

It had been said by the colonial scholars and historians that India
possessed no history by pointing out that the ancient India has a rich heritage of
religious texts and literature, but it lacks historical works as comparison to the
scholars of Greece and Rome of those times had systematically documented their
period. It is only from the beginning of the medieval period that Muslim scholars
started writing histories to document the triumph of Islam. But if we study the
great literary works of Sanskrit literature in ancient India i.e. ‘itihas-puran
tradition’, itivrtta, akhyayika, vansabali, carita, and chronicle of kings, then we
find that they forms some types of historical sense. In this paper I will point out
the ideas of historical sense in the Sanskrit literature in India with special
reference to Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’. I will mostly focus on the translation
which had been carried out by a various historians through 16th, 17th, 18th 19th
and 20th century, historical debates on the nature of Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’
and its values, his themes and contents etc. There has been a lot of ongoing
argument related to ‘Rajatarangini’ to define it as literary work or the historical
work. My work will try to show it that it should be seen as the historical or the
great literary texts written by a great man of Kashmir in 12th century AD.

The ‘Rajatarangini’ is a long narrative poem of eight thousand metrical verses of Sanskrit
literature divided into eight cantons, recognized as a comprehensive and continuous history of
the kings of Kashmir from mythical times to the date of its composition (AD1148-49) which
covered approximately 3600 years. It is based on traditions, legends, written records, and
inscriptions. It was written by Kalhana as a ‘Kavya’ and aiming at a synthesis of aesthetic
historical truth.1This narrative is composed during a period when dynastic revolutions and the
emergence of new social classes threatened the established social and political order. 2 It is
primarily concerned with the succession of kings and queens who ruled Kashmir during this
period and highlights a rich narrative of social, political, and cultural history. The purposes of
Kalhana to write this historical text were to connect the narratives of various dynasties which
ruled over Kashmir from the earliest time to his own period.

Translation of ‘Rajatarangini’

1
Warder, 1972, pp. 55-62.
2
Zutshi, 2011, pp. 6.

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The early 20th century produced the European Indologist and Indian nationalist
translation work of the Kalhana’s ‘Rajtarangini’ in which the translation of M.A. Stein (1900)
and R.S. Pandit (1935) are important. The practice of translation and readings of ‘Rajtarangini’
in both Sanskrit and Persian literature had been continued through 12th to 20th century. In Persian
literature it was first carried out by Mulla Ahmed, the court historian of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin (r.
1423–74). Abul Fazl noted in his Ain-i-Akbari that when Mughal emperor Akbar entered into
Kashmir after conquering it in 1586, then he was offered a various works and ‘Rajatarangini’’
authored by Pandit Ratnagir, Padma Mehr, Kshemendra, and Kalhana and other Sanskrit and
Persian writers. Haider Malik Chadurah, governor of Kashmir appointed by Jahangir, in his
Tarikh noted that Mughal emperor Jahangir commissioned Muhammad Hussain to translate the
‘Rajatarangini’, and then deputed him (Chadurah) to utilize it to investigate the lives of his own
ancestors by composing a narrative of Kashmir’s past. The texts of various ‘Rajatarangini’ i.e.
Baharistan-i-Shahi (1614), Tarikh-i-Kashmir (1618–21), Waqiat-i-Kashmir (1747), and Tarikh-i-
Hasan (1885) have been survived through the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries
in other histories of Kashmir.
The earliest European to record an encounter with ‘Rajatarangini’ was the Frenchman
François Bernier, who traveled through Mughal India, including Kashmir, in the seventeenth
century and noted in his travelogue that he was engaged in translating “the histories of the
ancient Kings of Kachemire” into French.3 In 1825, H. H. Wilson published it in the Asiatic
Society’s journal Asiatic Researches, in which he introduced the idea that Kalhana’s
‘Rajatarangini’ was perhaps “the only Sanskrit composition yet discovered, to which the title of
History, can with any propriety be applied”. The first complete English translation of Kalhana’s
text in prose form was carried out by J. C. Dutt in three volumes, published in 1879, 1887, and
1898. In this Dutt described ‘Rajatarangini’ as “an account of a people who lived from the
earliest period in a corner of India”. His translation was an attempt to present ‘Rajatarangini’ as
a “sober history” that fit European standards of history writing. 4 Whereas George Buhler
indicted Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’ that possessed legend and myth as rendering the chronology
of a large part of the text “valueless” and its author suspect.5
The full version of English translation of ‘Rajatarangini’ appeared in two volumes by
M.A. Stein in 1900 which is the most widely read and cited translation and show ‘Rajatarangini’
as the history because of its chronological narratives, sources and objectivity, but he refrained
from describing it as history in his introduction and defined it as the ‘medieval chronicle’. 6
Stein’s research attempted to establish Kashmir as a unique and separate region within the Indian
Subcontinent and history produced by its historian are the history of Kashmir.
The Translation of ‘Rajtarangani’ which came out in 1935 and presented the nationalist
perspectives to highlight this texts of Sanskrit literature was done by R.S. Pandit who had
personal and political motivations for translating it into English by criticizing M.A. Stein’s
translation of ‘Rajatarangini’. He described it as a historical ‘kavya’ that highlighted the literary
heritage of the Indian nation and its people. He regarded it as much as other Sanskrit classics
which more historical truth and embodied more universal, even eternal truths. Pandit pointed out
that Kalhana has formed history as “humanistic studies and toward art rather than towards

3
Zutshi, 2011, pp. 10.
4
Ibid, pp. 11 (Originally in Dutt, 1879, pp. ii-iii).
5
Pandit, 2004 (1935) pp. xv.
6
Zutshi, 2011, pp. 18.

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economic life” and for him “history was not something to learn, but something to make people
live and understand life”.7 He says that Kalhana’s work was inlaid with all eight sentiments-love,
merriment, pathos, wrath, courage, terror, repulsion, and marvel which were designed “to teach
the art of life”.8 He analyzed Kalhana’s work was not the narrative of Kashmir region but as the
national narrative of Indian history.
The translation of Stein presented ‘Rajatarangini’ as a Sanskrit historical ‘kavya’, which
drew a picture of Kashmir’s unique geographical and historical identity. While Pandit’s
translation carried out specifically as a counterpoint to Stein’s and dismissed the value of
‘Rajatarangini’ as a regional Kashmiri historical text, offering it instead to a national audience as
a Sanskrit text that embodied India’s literary heritage and the essential and best qualities of the
Indian nation.

Historian’s views on ‘Rajatarangini’

R.C. Mazumdar, in his ‘Ideas of History in Sanskrit Literature’, has pointed out the
quantity of historical sense in the scholars of Sanskrit literature. For him, there were the
traditions to collect the events and write them which can be seen in ‘itihas-puran’ tradition and
‘chronicles of kings’ which were not more developed to arrange it systematically, but their
purposes and contents shows them historical. He said that the historical sense in Sanskrit
literature is widely found in the Kashmir Chronicle which was written by Kalhana. For him,
“Kalahana’s ‘Rajatarangini’ shows high-water mark of historical knowledge reached by the
ancient Hindu.”9 But he points out some characters of Kalhana which did not fit him historical is
the use of contents in his early cantons such as the presence of mythical or legendary kings, “a
blind faith in the Epics and Puranas,”, a belief in witchcraft and magic, explanation of events as
due to the influence of fate “rather than to any rational cause,” a general didactic tendency
inspired by Hindu views of karma, and “mere display of poetical and rhetorical skill.” 10
Nevertheless on the basis of the later parts of cantons Mazumdar points out that Kalhana has a
supreme merit of possessing a critical mind and spirit of skepticism which is the first virtues of a
historian and he questioned the veracity of past historians, and examined their statements in the
light of available evidence culled from the various sources.11
A.L. Basham has roughly divided it into three sections, first; chapters i-iii, in which
Kalhan appears to have based his statements almost entirely on traditions, second; iv-vi, covering
the Karkota and Utpala Dynasties, in which the chronology are being made or nearly events are
described and lastly; vii-viii, covering the two Lohara Dynasties, in which Kalhan used the eye
witness accounts and personal knowledge towards society. For him, the way in which Kalhana
used the sources, the purposes he chose to write and his understanding of historians work, are
historical which qualifies Kalhana as the historian and Basham concludes that “Kalhana’s
attitude to history would have been shared by most educated men in medieval Hindu India.”12
Romila Thapar has described Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’ as the narrative ‘kavya’ which
deals with the history of Kashmir from the earliest time to his own time. But following

7
Dutt, 1879, pp. xxx-xxxi.
8
Ibid, pp. xxi.
9
Mazumdar, 1961, pp. 25.
10
Ibid, pp. 22-24.
11
Ibid, pp. 21.
12
Basham, 1961, pp. 57-65.

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Mazumdar and Basham she has distinguished the early cantons of ‘Rajatarangini’ in which
supernatural causes are given important and later parts where Kalhana’s historical thinking are
presented. Historical events are now discussed from many points of views. She then says
“Kalhan was not a man with a closed mind, and this after all, is an essential qualification for a
good historian.”13
But the writers of ‘Textures of Time’ Velcheru Narayana Rao, David Shulman, and
Sanjay Subrahmanyam highlight Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’ in different manner and saw it as the
‘weak historiography’ by defining it as the ‘hyper-real’ and distinguished it from a historical
novel through pointing out that “realism by itself is no guarantee of historicity.” They also
charged it that it displays little understanding of causality.14 But when they talk about the south
Indian text Karanam, then did not attention about the concept of hyper-real in that texts.
Chitralekha Zutshi, in her “Translating the Past”, has recently talked about the translation
of Stein (1900) and Pandit (1935) in which Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’ has been defined as the
regional or vernacular and at the same time as the national and universal by other authors. 15 She
has tried to link the statement as to why Stein and Pandit gave their opinion to identify the nature
and concept of ‘Rajatarangini’ which create a different on this work of Sanskrit literature.
Another important argument on Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’ which shows a very different
opinion to place it into a historical category is recently given by Shonaleeka Kaul. She has
pointed out that Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’is not a simple texts, but as composite as the “kavya’
in form and spirit, but draw heavily in content, slant, and ever form on several other textual
traditions.16 For her, ‘Rajatarangini’ gives a philosophical corrective for the understanding of
Kashmir. As pointed out by Kaul, “Kalhana does not merely recount the past of a regional
kingdom; at multiple levels, he constructs a space called Kashmir which is a politico-
geographical space on the ground, but also an ideological space open to the author to organize
around moral principles that bring the past and present into a complementary relationship.”17

Sources & Chronology of ‘Rajatarangini’

Kalhana’s ideas to arrange works with the systemic sources defined his works as the
historical. The value of historical impartiality can easily be traced in his works. He narrated the
affairs of Kashmir without any intention, but just for the knowledge of Kashmir to their people.
He himself says about the poet which make them great, “worthy of praise whose word, like that
of a judge, keeps free from love or hatred in relating the facts of the past.”18 The credit which has
been given to Kalhana’s work was for his materials which he had used in his work. He has used
eleven works of former scholars in which Nilmatpuran, Kshemendra’s ‘List of Kings’, and
chronicles of Padmamihira and Chavillakar etc. He said that he had taken eight royal names
beginning with Lawa from Padmamihira’s work. Kshemendra’s works was famous in ancient
India, but due to its nature, Kalhana acknowledges it to be “the work of a poet”, but charges it
with showing mistakes in every single part, “due to a certain want of care.”19 Apart from literary

13
Thapar, 1983, pp. 52-62.
14
Rao, Shulman and Subrahmanyam, 2001, pp. 254-60.
15
Zutshi, 2001, pp. 5-27. (Also see Kaul, 2013, pp. 209)
16
Kaul, 2013, pp. 209.
17
Ibid, pp. 222.
18
Stein, 1900, pp. 24.
19
Ibid, pp. 25.

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works Kalhana also used the inscription regarding the consecration of temples and grants by
former kings which were at the laudatory inscriptions (prasasti) and at written texts. His
antiquarian interests whom he used in his texts as the sources made his works prosperous. He
also referred coins, monuments and buildings to find the details. Another most important source
which he used in the later cantons of his texts is the personal knowledge and contemporary eye
witness. It is highly probable that his accurate and vivid account of political affairs of Kashmir is
based on the communication of his father, who was the royal chief of the king Harsh of
Kashmir.20 Thus, Kalhana not only made a thorough study of all previous writers on the history
of Kashmir, but also constructed the original sources.21
The chronology of the‘Rajatarangini’ distinguished its cantons into two parts; the first
from chapter i-iii in which the chronology had not been mentioned in the systematic way and
persons and events which figures mentioned in them, can but rarely be traced in other sources,
while the second parts from iv-viii which extends from the beginning of Karkota dynasty to his
own time, are easily be traced in the Indian and foreign accounts. 22 His chapter from i-iii talks
about the chronology of Gonanda I who, according to Kalhana, was in Kali year 653 and
accession of Gonanda III about 1919 Kali year or 1182 BC.23 Kalhan has also described this Kali
year 653 as the period when Yudhishthir, elder brother of Pandavs were presented and Kali Year
1919 or 1182 BC as the age of Asoka of Mauryan Empire. But the current archaeological
evidence tells the age of Asoka in the 3rd century BC, as he was a great patron of Buddhism.
Even Buddhist writings also talks about his reign and it is well known that Buddhism started by
Lord Buddha in 6th century BC. That is why some scholars distinguished early parts of
‘Rajatarangini’ from its later parts because of its arrangement of the chronology.
He said that the name of 52 kings were left by the earlier writers between Gonanda I and
Gonanda III, so he tried to arrange those names. He in his chapter iii gives the date of
Vikramaditya, who started Saka era in 78 AD, about 4th century BC. If we follow the dates given
by Kalhana, then the age of Vikramaditya will be 500 year back.24 Kalhana started giving dates
in the systematic manner from Laukika year 3889 which began on 7th March, 813 AD to the
Laukika year 4225 i.e. 1149-50AD which are available in his book v-viii and can be traced by
other sources.25

Historical Sense in Kalhana

Kalhana, who wrote ‘Rajatarangini’, was the son of Lord Champak who was a chief
official of king Harsh (A.D. 1089-1101). His works highlights that he was touched with the royal
families of Kashmir and whatever he wrote in his later chapters were based on the eye witness
accounts. His father was more touched with the political affairs of Kashmir who must have
guided Kalhana to provide details of Kashmir. 26 Kanak was his uncle who had also a great

20
Stein, 1900, pp. 27.
21
Mazumdar, 1961, pp. 21.
22
Stein, 1900, pp. 56.
23
Ibid, pp. 56-66.
24
Ibid, pp. 66.
25
Ibid, pp. 67-68.
26
Ibid, pp. 6-7.

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connection with the royal families. It is noted that Kalhana was Brahmin by caste and Tantrik
worship was known to him, but he also kept interest in the Buddhism.27
His literary training helped him to write this kind of texts which highlight a long history
of Kashmir. He was well-known to Indian rhetoric, Alamkarasastra and Sanskrit grammatical
lore. He studied vansavali, epics, Vikramankdevcarita, Harsacarita and Mankha’s
Srikanthacarita.28 Mankha was a well-known poet of Kalhan’s times in Kashmir who arranged an
Alankar Sabha and listed most of the participants in that Sabha. His Srikanthacarita presented a
person known as Kalyan, who must be Kalhana.29 The main aspects which make Kalhana’s work
as the historical is the concept of his task what he understand to write in great details about
Kashmir from ancient time. His ideas of work as the ‘kavi’ and to mention the sources in his
works distinguished him from the early writers of the chronicles. Kalhana described his work
which purposes were “to give a connected account where the narrative of past events has become
fragmentary in many respects.”30 The rule of Alankarasastra and didactic features used by him
brought his work to be truth and proved to be historical.31
But super-natural things and mistakes in chronology were done by Kalhana in the earlier
chapters of the‘Rajatarangini’ which covered up to 8th century. The critiques of his texts mark a
question regarded the nature of ‘Rajatarangini’ as to define it as the historical or literary works.
But again other styles, purposes and contents of his work can prove his work as the historical
one. The honesty and impartiality are the great aspects which he used in his work. He does not
hide the errors and weaknesses of the king under whom he wrote. As pointed out by him Banbhat
and Bilhana, who were too treats of historical facts, yet their “heroes are painted all white and
their enemies all black”.32 Certainly he praises some of the king’s enemies for their courage. The
conventions of Sanskrit literature required a happy ending, and Kalhana was first and foremost a
poet who could have concluded his work with a description of tyranny and oppression without
any tasteful events.33 Another important elements what Kalhana had used in his chronicle was
the rhetorical ornaments in which metaphors, similes, puns, and the endless varieties of poetic
figures which are the tests of the Kavi skills.34
He was aware of the functions of historical writings and declares that he wrote his
chronicle for various purposes i.e. to establish the chronology in true manner, to write readable
narrative of past, and in the last he mentioned of his philosophy of history.35 Kalhana’s ideas on
the writing of history were directly influenced by two main streams of the Indian traditions
which were concerned with recording the past: the Brahmanical and the Buddhist. There is some
evidence on this period of the history of Kashmir available in the Annals of the Tang Dynasty of
China. If communication with China was so close at this time, then perhaps some trickle of the
Chinese emphasis on keeping records and dynastic chronicles may have found its way into the
historical traditions of Kashmir.36 Finally, Kalhana obviously believed that history taught lessons

27
Ibid, pp. 8.
28
Ibid, pp. 11.
29
Ibid, pp. 12-14.
30
Ibid, pp. 25.
31
Ibid, pp. 22-23.
32
Ibid, pp. 32-33.
33
Basham, 1961, pp. 62-63.
34
Ibid, pp. 38-39.
35
Thapar, 1983, pp. 53.
36
Ibid, pp. 55.

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more practical than mere resignation, by studying the history of earlier reigns. He is inspired by a
deep feeling on regional patriotism.37

Themes of ‘Rajatarangini’

To define the nature of Kalhana’s ‘Rajatarangini’ I would like to highlight some few
socio-political and geographical aspects of Kashmir as narrated by Kalhana which will help us to
go to conclusion. Kalhana in his ‘Rajatarangini’ has described from the origin of Kashmir to his
own time. To understand his historical qualities, Kalhana’s descriptive qualities can be seen
through his analysis of the geographical, social and political systems of Kashmir.
The history of the geography of Kashmir, as pointed out by Kalhan, starts from the age
when it was a lake. By refereeing Nilmat Puran he pointed that Kashmir was a lake named
Satisar in which Jaldevta lived. Kashyap Rishi and Bhrama Dev with other gods killed Jaldevta
and created gardens and mountains, and then Kashmir came into existence. Kashmir was divided
into two parts i.e. ‘Madawrajya’ & ‘Kramrajya’. Kalhana’s knowledge of topography also
helped him to write the exact locations of places mentioned in his works. He showed Kashmir
not as a small hill station, but a great and mighty land, whose kings in former days conquered the
whole of India and even Ceylon. 38 For him, Kashmir between 800-1200 CE occupied a
distinctive position in Sanskrit cosmologies and was perceived as major cultural center even by
outsiders.
In case of society, he talked the castes of Gandhar Pradesh from Yamuna and the boarder
of Kashmir. He also pointed out the areas where the particular communities lived. For example
he talks about Guhak, Yaksh, Darad who used to live in north of Kashmir region and Gandhar,
Khash and Dev were in the south of Kashmir region. He has also talked about the ‘Jangali’
people. His writings highlights that the people of Kashmir, who credited the foundation of
Buddhist Stupas and Viharas, were also attached to Saiv Cults, therefore, they were in touch both
with Buddhism and Brahmanism and Buddhist, Brahman and Jain cults were equal to the courts
of Kashmir.39 He talks about the cities i.e. Narpur, Puradhistans, & Skandpur his descriptions of
famine, food prices, taxation, currency etc. do not fail to give a picture of the economic life of his
times.
Kalhan has narrated the politics of Kashmir from early times, but in case of his own time
in a great detail. He says that Karkot, Utpal, Lohar, Lohar-II were the main dynasties of ancient
Kashmir. His attention on the political affairs of 12th century can be seen as descriptive analysis
of Kashmir. As M.A. Stein has written that the commencement of the twelfth century is marked
in the history of Kashmir by an important dynastic revolution which brought about material
changes in the political state of the country. The Reign of King Harsha (A.D. 1089-1101) seems
at first to have secured to Kashmir a period of consolidation and of prosperous peace. But after
his death Kashmir was divided into two parts under Uccala and Sussala where Damaras of
Kashmir Gargachandra played a diplomatic role in the king-maker.40

37
Basham, 1961, pp. 61.
38
Basham, 1961, pp. 61.
39
A chines visitor Hiuen Tsiang has also proved this equality among them (See Stein, 1990, pp. 9).
40
Stein, 1900, pp. 15-16.

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Conclusion

As it has been seen, whatever I tried to narrate the historical issues to Kalhana’s
‘Rajatatangini’ in this paper, that the most of scholars and historians are engaged to define this
text of Kashmir as the historical one by pointing out its methods of sources, contents and the
views on the value of its writings and the nature of a historian. But they define it to be historical
only of the later cantons of the ‘Rajatatangini’, and defined earlier one to be full of the sources
used of myths and legends, not to be historical. To define the whole texts to be historical, i would
like to highlight the concept and consciousness of time or ages in the eyes of ancient Indian
Hindu people which calibrated the entire spectrum from cosmic to anthropic time in a pattern of
four recurring mega-periods (kṛta, tretā, dvāpara, and kali yugas) signifying ascent and decline.
The Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, composed from circa fifth century BCE to fifth century
CE which belong to that genre of Sanskrit literature known as itihāsa that is generally
understood to stand for “history.” As such, the yugas may well be regarded as an old and
culturally popular choice of mode for rendering time. It can be noted here that Kalhaṇa himself
uses the kaliyuga as the basis of the dates he ascribes to the early kings of Kashmir. Whatever
Kalhana has written in his ‘Rajatatangini’ on the basis of the sources what he found, understood
by him as the historical sources to make a corrective analysis.
He has used the concept of age (Kaliyuga) to give the chronology of the kings of Kashmir
on the basis of his sources, yet his arguments are not being accepted by the historians by pointing
out Kalhana’s “blind faith in Epics and Puranas,” and of its reliance on “legendary and fictive
events.”41 As the historians pointed out earlier cantons were based on the sources which were full
of legends and myths, but I asked them by saying that myths also presents the ideas of truths. As
wisely observed by Paul Veyne, “myth is not about the real as truth, but about what was noble as
truth.”42
Thus, Kalahana’s epic survey of Kashmir cannot be seen simply as a departure from
literary norms of the ‘Mahakavyas’, but as an assessment of literature, kingship, reign and
dynasties etc. His description of incidents in the recent history appears to achieve a high standard
of accuracy, and filled with the use of required sources, which are eminent features of a
historian. Thus, after a deep narration of the sources which were used by him, the styles and
contents in which he wrote, the themes what he mentioned and his purposes to give a corrective
history from the creation of Kashmir to his own time, it can finally be said that he has the
historical sense from which he completed the narration of Kashmir: ‘Rajatarangini’ which keeps
the historical qualities in itself.

41
Kaul, 2014, pp. 197.
42
Ibid, pp. 197.

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References:-

 Basham, A.L, ‘Kashmir Chronicle’, C.H. Philips ed. Historians of India, Pakistan, &
Ceylon, Oxford University Press, London, 1961, pp. 57-65.
 Kaul, Shonaleeka. ‘Kalhana’s Kashmir: Aspect of the Literary production of space in the
Rajatarangini’, Indian Historical Review, 40(2), 2013, pp.207-222.
 Kaul, Shonaleeka. ‘Seeing the Past: Texts and Question of History in the Rajatarangini’,
History and Theory, 53(May 2014), pp. 194-211.
 Mazumdar, R.C, ‘Ideas in Sanskrit Literature’, C.H. Philips ed. Historians of India,
Pakistan, & Ceylon, Oxford University Press, London, 1961, pp. 13-28.
 Pandit, R.S, ‘The River of Kings: Rājataraṅgiṇī, The Saga of the Kings of Kashmir’,
Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 2004 (1935), Introduction.
 Sreedharan, E, ‘A Textbook of Historiography’, Orient Blackswan, New Delhi, 2004, pp.
309-41.
 Stien, Marc Aurel, “Kalhana’s Rajtarangini: A Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir”,
Motilal Banarsidas Prakashan, 1990 (1900), pp. 3-71
 Thapar, Romila, ‘Kalhana’ in Mohibbul Hasan ed., Historians of Medieval India,
Meenakshi Prakashan, New Delhi, 1983, pp. 52-62
 Warder, A.K, ‘An Introduction to Indian Historiography’, Popular Prakashan Bombay,
1972, pp. 55-59.
 Zutshi, Chitralekha, ‘Translating the Past: Rethinking Rajatarangani Narratives in
Cololinal Indian, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 70, No. 1 (February) 2011, pp. 5–27.