Page:Kalhana's Rajatarangini Vol 1.djvu/5

 PREFACE.

Tr was in the summer of 1888, on my first visit to Kasmir, that I was attracted to the task which the present work is intended to complete.

Amidst the ancient remains and trad ch the Valley has preserved in such abundance, I could not fail to become impressed with the importance of Kaxsana's Chronicle, our oldest and fullest record of Kaémir history. I realized that in order to render its contents fully accessible for research it was necessary, on the one hand, to obtain a critically correct text, and on the other, to collect for its elucidation whatever data a close study of the country and its old remaine could furnish.

My subsequent visits to Kasmir offered valuable opportunities in both directions. In 1889 I succeeded in securing the codex archetypus of all extant manuscripts of the Rdjataraagini, and with its help I was able to publish in 1892 my critical edition of the text of the Chronicle. In its preface I expressed my intention of embodying the materials I had collected for the interpretation of the work in the form of a commentary to be published as # second volume.

Eeavy official labours and another literary duty did not allow me to approach this portion of my task until the summer of 1895, when an arrangement between the Kashmir Darbar and the Punjab University, adopted on the recommendation of the Tenth International Congress of Orientalists, secured to me the necessary facilities. Availing myself of the two months’ periods of ‘special duty’ granted to me in extension of the summer vacations of 1895, 1896, and 1898, I was able to expand the plan of my labours and ultimately to complete the present annotated translation of the Chronicle which, together with its Introduction snd various Appendices, is now offered in place of the commentary originally contemplated.

The detailed analysis of the RAvATARANGINi contained in the initial chapters of my Introduction will explain the reasons which make the Rajatarangini so important for the study of ancient Kasmir and for Indian historical research generally. This importance and the exceptional interest which attaches to Kalhana’s “River of Kings” as practically the sole extant product of Sanskrit