History of Kashmir

"Kashmir may rightfully boast of a long tradition of producing histories and historical works of considerable value. No fewer than a dozen histories are referred to by Kalhana which, besides other materials, served him as sources for his celebrated chronicle Rajatarangini written in Laukika 4225 corresponding to A.D. 1149/50. Kalhana's impact on the historians and chroniclers who followed him is evident in at least the works of four of them who endeavoured to carry on the tradition of recording the events of the rulers of their time: Jonaraja, Srivara, Prajyabhatta and Suka. While the work of Prajyabhatta is lost to us, the history of Suka takes us to the time of the second tenure of Sultan Fath Shah in A.D. 1538. The historical accounts of these four Sanskrit historians are relatively brief; they make only veiled references to events which deserved to be treated in greater detail. But they wrote under several constraints, and that perhaps explains why their perception and presentation of events did not match that of Kalhana's. It is also likely that what has survived the ravages of time is only a fragment of what they had written. Nevertheless, these accounts are valuable to us; at least we have something to fall back upon."

"I should like to warn that histories of Kashmir written by Kashmiri Hindus in modern times are worse than useless for this purpose. I have read almost all of them, only to be left wondering at the piteous state to which the Hindu mind in Kashmir has been reduced."