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 source book 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 Kahlana. 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, analyzing its contents and structure, which had originally appeared in the Calcutta Review.
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