Rājataraṅgiṇī (Sanskrit: राजतरङ्गिणी, romanized: rājataraṅgiṇī, IPA: [ɾɑː.d͡ʑɐ.t̪ɐˈɾɐŋ.ɡi.ɳiː], lit. 'The River of Kings') is a metrical legendary and historical chronicle of the north-western part of Indian sub-continent, particularly the kings of Kashmir. It was written in Sanskrit by Kashmiri historian Kalhana in the 12th century CE.

List of kings

Book 1 : Gonanda dynasty (I)

The total reign of the following kings is mentioned as 1266 years.

Gonanditya dynasty (I)

The Gonanda dynasty ruled Kashmir for 1002 years.

Book 2 : Other rulers

No kings mentioned in this book have been traced in any other historical source. These kings ruled Kashmir for 192 years.

Book 3: Restored Gonandiya dynasty

Book 4: Karkota dynasty

Book 5 : Utpala dynasty (Part-I)

Book 6 : Utpala dynasty (Part-II)

Book 7: First Lohara dynasty

Book 8: Second Lohara dynasty

Evaluation

Literary

Kalhana was an educated and sophisticated Sanskrit scholar, well-connected in the highest political circles. His writing is full of literary devices and allusions, concealed by his unique and elegant style.

Historical reliability

Despite the value that historians have placed on Kalhana's work, there is little evidence of authenticity in the earlier books of Rajatarangini. For example, Ranaditya is given a reign of 300 years. Toramana is clearly the Huna king of that name, but his father Mihirakula is given a date 700 years earlier. Even where the kings mentioned in the first three books are historically attested, Kalhana's account suffers from chronological errors. Kalhana's account starts to align with other historical evidence only by Book 4, which gives an account of the Karkota dynasty. But even this account is not fully reliable from a historical point of view. For example, Kalhana has highly exaggerated the military conquests of Lalitaditya Muktapida.

Sequels

Translations

A Persian translation of Rajatarangini was commissioned by Zain-ul-Abidin, who ruled Kashmir in the 15th century CE. Horace Hayman Wilson partially translated the work, and wrote an essay based on it, titled The Hindu History of Kashmir (published in Asiatic Researches Volume 15). Subsequent English translations of Kalhana's Rajatarangini include: Translations in other languages include:

Adaptations

Several books containing legendary stories from Rajatarangini have been compiled by various authors. These include: A television series based on Rajatarangini named Meeras began in 1986 in Doordarshan, Srinagar.