Medieval Kashmir (Hardbound-2022)

Medieval Kashmir is the reprint of Kings of Kashmira, Vol. III, translated into English from the original Sanskrit work Rajatarangini of Kalhana Pandita by Jogesh Chandra Dutt.

The narration left by Kalhana, who may be called the father of Indian history, was taken up by Jonaraja. He again was followed by his pupil Shrivara; and Shrivara’s work was continued by Prajyabhatta who left his work incomplete, and later it was taken up by Shuka who brought the account of Kashmira to the time when the country was conquered by Akbar, and it ceased to be an independent kingdom. The works of all these authors have been translated by Jogesh Chandra Dutt in the volume Kings of Kashmira.

The later authors have greatly improved Kalhana’s method of writing history. They are clear and perspicuous, and events are narrated consecutively, so that the whole narration runs in one continuous flow. The writer, however, could not forget that they were poets as well as historians, and consequently they interspersed their accounts with flowers of poesy and rhetorical flourishes.

The translator has tried his best to put the intruding fragments into their proper places. However, he has not been able to find the proper place of three unimportant and uninteresting stories which he has put in appendices.

Jogesh Chandra Dutt made history in 1879 when he presented to the world the earliest English translation of the first part of the celebrated work of Kalhana, viz., the Rajatarangini. It was entitled Kings of Kashmira and the second part, appearing in 1887, completed the English version of Kalhana’s masterpiece. Dutt went ahead and published in 1898 the third volume comprising the works of Jonaraja and his successors.

S.L. Sadhu had his schooling from the C.M.S. Biscoe School, Srinagar. He obtained his degree in 1936 from S.P. College, Srinagar. He passed his M.A. in English Literature from the University of Delhi in 1938. After working as a journalist, he became a lecturer at his alma mater, S.P. College. After teaching at various colleges as a Professor in English Literature in Jammu and Kashmir State, he became Principal at Government College, Sopore, and then at the V.B. Women’s College, Srinagar, retiring in 1979.

He wrote in English and in Kashmiri, and his first collection of stories, Folk Tales from Kashmir, published in the early 1950s, was well received within the country and abroad. His other publications include No Axe to Grind: Glimpses of the Life in Kashmir, Tales from the Rajatarangani, Haba Khatoon, Place Names in Kashmir, and Rupa Bhavani.

He has been the recipient of half-a-dozen literary awards, including one from the UNESCO. He is associated with a number of educational, literary, and socio-cultural organisations.