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Kalhana’s Rajatarangini is the best example of history writing tradition in early India. Discuss.

  • UPSC 2022
  • Themes in Early Indian Cultural History

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Colonial-era scholars such as Alberuni and V.A. Smith held that ancient India lacked a genuine "sense of history," producing storytelling and myth rather than critical chronicle. Against this backdrop, Kalhana's Rajatarangini ("The River of Kings," 12th century CE), a Sanskrit verse chronicle of Kashmir in eight Tarangas, is routinely cited as the closest early Indian…

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What the full answer covers

  • The Historiographical Backdrop: Did Early India Have a "Sense of History"?
  • Kalhana's Historiographical Self-Consciousness
  • Method: Chronology and the Use of Evidence
  • Objectivity and Its Limits
  • Testing the Claim: Rival Candidates
  • Buddhist Chronicles — Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa
  • …and 3 more sections, with a conclusion
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