From conqueror to connoisseur: Kalhaṇa’s account of JayÄ pīḠa and the fashioning of Kashmir as a Kingdom of learning

Yigal Bronner
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Yigal Bronner: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Indian Economic & Social History Review, 2013, vol. 50, issue 2, 161-177

Abstract: This article is primarily concerned with asking how we can read Kalhaṇa’s RÄ jataraá¹…giṇī as historians, other than by mining it for facts and names or using it as a proof of some South Asian given. I conduct my investigation on a relatively small sample, a well-defined narrative sequence of about 100 verses from the fourth chapter, or ‘wave’, of the River of Kings (4.402–502), which narrates King JayÄ pīḠa’s first military campaign. I try to demonstrate that this section depicts a dramatic shift in Kashmir’s investment in learning and the arts. Thus I argue that the RÄ jataraá¹…giṇī, despite its unifying poetic and moralistic framework, is acutely attuned to changes in Kashmir’s history, including this region’s special cultural and intellectual history, a topic that is clearly dear to Kalhaṇa’s heart.

Keywords: RÄ jataraá¹…giṇī; Kalhaṇa; JayÄ pīḠa; Udbhaá¹­a; Kashmir; cultural and intellectual history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indeco:v:50:y:2013:i:2:p:161-177

DOI: 10.1177/0019464613487098

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