Unlike the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and the Chinese, the Indians had no tradition of historical writing. While Indian literature provides a great deal of material for the reconstruction of Indian history, neither Sanskrit nor any other Indian literature included history as one of its main branches. The only exception to this rule is Kahlana's Rajatarangini-a history of Kashmir. Considering the poverty of historical records in India, the value of this rare historical work of singular significance can scarcely be exaggerated.
Every great social and religious revolution, and every great historical event which transpired in India have left their impress on the history of Kashmir. By narrating this history, Kahlana provides us with a historical sourcebook of inestimable value.
The present work is the first English translation of this unique masterpiece. A short resume of the Sanskrit original published by H. H. Wilson was the only available English rendering, but his work in addition to being incomplete, was flawed by the mixing up of inaccurate additions he had gathered from Persian translations of Kablana.
After Kahlana's death, his narrative was continued by four other chroniclers successively and their work constitutes the subject matter of Volume III.
An important feature of the present set of volumes is the inclusion in Volume II of a masterly review of Kahlana's work by R. C. Dutt, analysing its contents and structure, which had originally appeared in the Calcutta Review.
SEPARATED from the rest of the world, on the north by the lofty range of the Himalaya mountains, and on other sides by the sea, India has from the earliest period presented to its people a world by itself. And within this vast continent lived from the remotest antiquity a portion of the Aryan race who developed among themselves a degree of civilization unattained by nuy other nation of antiquity. This people, though driginating from the same stock, speaking the dialects of the same language, and following the dictates of the same religion, had early divided themselves into different tribes according to the physical nature of the portion of the country which they each came to occupy. The Káshmírians and the Nepálese who inhabited the mountainous regions of the Himalayas, differed from those who dwelt in the valleys of the Indus or the Gruges, or occupied the deserts of Rajputana or the tableland of Maháráshtra. Nor did the division cease here. There were minuter sub-divisions, and the country was cut up into small principalities nud tribes, each tribe having a chief of their own, speaking a distinct dialect, settling in a definite tract of country which they generally named after themselves. Honen Sang, the Chineso pilgrim, who visited India in the 7th century after Christ, speaks of 138 such principalities, of which 110 were personally visited by him. These petty tribes seem to have kept up a continual strife with one another, subduing and being subdued in turn. And many were the tribes that rose to influence from time to time, reducing their neighbours to a state of vassalage, and styling themselves the lords of the seagirt world. Nor were their affairs always confined within the geographical limits of India. They had frequent intercourse with almost all the ancient nations. Their ships visited China and the Eastern Archipelago, and they were visited in turn by Arab ships and merchants who exported Indian commodities to Bagdad, Egypt and Europe. Foreigners also came as invaders, and not unfrequently as travellers.
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