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What is history? How does a land become a homeland? How are cultural identities formed? The Making of Early Kashmir explores these questions in relation to the birth of Kashmir and the discursive and material practices that shaped it up to the 12th century CE. Reinterpreting the first work of Kashmiri history, Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, this book argues that the text was history not despite being traditional Sanskrit poetry but because of it. It elaborated a poetics of place, implicating Kashmir’s sacred geography, a stringent critique of local politics, and a regional selfhood that transcended the limits of vernacularism.Combined with longue durée testimonies from art, material culture, script, and linguistics, this book jettisons the image of an isolated and insular Kashmir. It proposes a cultural formation that straddled the Western Himalayas and the Indic plains with Kashmir as the pivot. This is the story of the connected histories of the region and the rest of India.

Rajatarangini Means 'River Of Kings'. The Stories Were Written In Verse By Kalhana, A Famous Eleventh-Century Historian-Poet. These Stories Cover Kashmir'S Rich Culture, Traditions And Beliefs.

The advent of Islam in medieval Kashmir gave birth to a narrative that describes forcible mass conversion of Hindus, eviction of local people and wanton demolition of religious symbols. A minority of Kashmiri Brahmans and their progeny who did not convert to Islam built and successfully perpetuated this narrative over the centuries. Following the eruption of armed insurgency in Kashmir and mass migration of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, this community narrative has turned into the Indian mainstream view on Kashmiri Pandits. Kashmir: Exposing the Myth behind the Narrative challenges the existing narrative. It exposes many fallacies used to uphold this narrative and dissects the work of historians that has sustained ahistorical perceptions over a long period of time. By linking history to the present, the book facilitates an understanding of the situation today.

"Kalhana's Rajatarangino is not only a classic of Sanskrit narrative poetry but is the earliest extant history of Kashmir. Written in the middle of the 12th century, in the age when the Crusaders of Europe were fighting in Western Asia. Kalhana's masterpiece is a unique blend of authentic chronicle and imaginative poetry inspired by the poet's passionate love of his exquisitely beautiful homeland. This famous English translation by R.S. Pandit was first published in 1935. It was out of print for many years until the Sahitya Akademi reprinted it in 1968. It was further reprinted several times. Except for minor typographical corrections, the text, introduction, foreword and the learned translator's copious notes are retained exactly as in the original edition." -- Book jacket.