Page:Kalhana's Rajatarangini Vol 1.djvu/17

 PREFACE. xix

the scenes of Kalhana’s story closer before the eye of the reader. The materials are ample in KaSmir, where the sites to which the Chronicler’s narrative takes us, can mostly be traced with such accuracy, and where so many objects of antiquarian interest have survived from the periods he deals with. But Kalhana is neither a Pausanias nor @ Marco Polo, and hence the wish of an illustrated translation such as the efforts of two distinguished scholars have provided for the antiquarian of classical Greece and for the great traveller of the Middle Ages, must remain a pium desiderium which even the most enterprising publisher might well hesitate to realize.

My translation and the notes which in October, 1896. With the scanty leis ¢ to me at Lahore it would have been impossible to attempt to complete sry task hy 2 historical introduction such as I had originally promised. Yet my recent labows had convinced me more than ever how necessary it was from the point of view of the critical student that the many important questions relating to the personality of the author, the character and scope of his Chronicle, and its value as a source of historical information, should be examined systematically and in a connected form, A recommendation of the Eleventh International Congress of Orientalists, 1897, induced the Kashmir Darbar and the Punjab University jointly to grant me once more a two months’ period of special duty for the purpose of completing my work in the manner indicated. Iwas thus able to prepare during the summer, 1898, the critical Introduction which precedes my translation of Kalhana’s text, and in addition also the “Memoir on the Ancient Geography of Kaémir” which follows it.

In the Inrnopuction I have endeavoured to elucidate in the first place the data which can be gathered as regards the person of Kalhana, his family, and the milieu in that he lived. The discovery of @ curious and hitherto unnoticed reference to Kalhana by his countryman and contemporary, the poet Munkha, may perhaps claim special interest, as confirming in a striking manner the con- clusions derived from the Chrouicler’s own work as regards his literary training and interests. In the second Chapter I have examined as closely as our available materials would permit, the objects and methods which guided Kelhane in the composition of his work, the sources he used for it, and the form which he gave to his narrative. The condition in which the text of the Chronicle has been handed down to us, and the materials I have used for its reconstitution, are discussed in the third Chapter, while the next contains an exposition of Kelhana’s system of Chronology.

pany it were finished in manuscript

% Seo Intvod., §§ 9, 10.