Introduction to Historical treatises

It is possible that the genealogies of the Puranas were inspired by the lists of teachers recorded in later Vedic texts. These genealogies in their turn must have induced the production of histories and historical poems in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrits. Like the 'controlled' war news, press communiques, and the present day histories, the ancient chronicles were hardly accurate records of facts. Even at present deliberate inaccuracy is published. The discre lible social news is suppressed by the ruling race while such news is exaggerated to denounce the subject races. Therefore discrepancy in dates, etc, in ancient chronicles should not take away their historical worth as we have to sift fact from fiction even now-a-days. Inscriptions like that of King Kharavela of Kalinga (B. C. 165)', Rudradaman (1 st Century A. D.), Samudragupta (4 th century), Harsha of Kanauj (7 th century), Chalukyas, Rastrakutas, Palas and Senas supply much historical information with reliable dates and genealogies. These inscriptions are either eulogies (Prasasti) or deeds of gifts (dana-patra), and supply genealogies of reigning kings and donors, activities of the rulers, conditions of gift, and set out the histories of the architect who constructed the gift, the priest who consecrated it, the poet who composed it and the scribe who engraved the letters The Western Chalukya kings of Kalyani (A. D. 973-1189) derivel from Dynastic archives knowledge of the earlier Chalukya dynasty of Badami (A. D. 550-557). And the Silahara princes of southern Konkan kept record of their paramount soverigns, the Rashtrakutas (A. D. 762-973), as well as of themselves. "The preservation of pedigrees and successions 1 It tells us that he spent 15 years in princely sports; that for 9 years he enjoyed as heir-apparent; that he was crowned to the succession at the end of his 24 th year; and then it bristly enumerates year by year, the principal events of his reign, and certain large items of expenditure on public works and charity, as far as the 13 th year.

has evidently been a national characteristic for many centuries. And we cannot doubt that considerable attention was paid to the 'matter' in connexion with the royal families, and that Vamsivalis and Rajavalis, lists of lineal successions of kings, were compiled and kept from very early times. In fact, the matter is not one of speculation, but is capable of proof." The introductory passages of the grants of the Eastern Chalukya series, for instance, name the successive kings beginning with the founder of the line who reigned centuries before that time. Again the Eastern Gangas of Kalinga supply in their grants from 1058 Vamsivalis which give the same details about the kings of that line including a coronation-date of 1741. A long Vasavali from Nepal gives an unbroken list of the rulers of that country with the lengths of their reigns and the date of an accession in an era from 1768 (even from 1182 B C. i. e., six or seven centuries before the Kali age in 3102 B. C.. The Vansavalis from Orissa present an unbroken list of kings of that province back from 1871 to the Kali age in 3102 B. C. with the length of the reign of each, and with certain specified dates as epochs. Kalhana in his Rijatarangini (1148-49 A. D.) mentions lists of kings of Kashmir which had been put together by Kshemendra and Helaraja. The Jains have Pattavalis or successions of pontiffs which run back to the death of the last Tirthankara Vardhamana Mahavira in about 527 B. C. The palmleaf archives of the temple of Jagannath at Puri give certain definite and reliable land marks in the early history.' The introductions and colophons of literary works, as compiled by Professor Peterson and Dr. R. G. Bandarkar in their Sanskrit manuscripts contain definite historical matter including dates. In the colophon of his Yasastilaka, for instance, Somadeva tells us that "he finished that work in Chaitra, Saka year 881 (A. D. 959) during the rule of a Chalukya prince Krishnaraja deva (i. e. Krishna III, 959 A. D.). We learn more The Bower manuscript on birch-bark discovered by Lt. Bower at Kashgaria on the north of Kashmir through excavations at the foot of an old erection of which several are to be found in the Kachar district shows that even manuscripts are yet to be discovered which may supply historical records.

about the family of this prince, Arikesarin, from the Vikra marjuna-Vijaya or Pampa-Bharata of Pampa (A. D. 941) which mentions as his patron Arikesin and gives his pedigree for seven preceding generations. Again in the introduction to his Subhashita muktavali (written in 1247-1260) Jalhana details his own pedigree and mentions the Devagiri Yadava Kings Bhillama, Singhana, and Krishna, and their ancestor Mallugi. Buddhists supply legendary history of the Buddha. The Mahavansa is an history of Mahanaman (5 th century A. D.); and Dvipavamsa is an history of Ceylon. There still exist some fourteen treatises in history. The Harshacharita of Bina is a real attempt to depict the history of king Harshavardhana of Kanauj (606-648 A. D.) recording the contemporary events of the country. This record on the whole is supported by his three inscriptions and the Chinese historian Hiuen-Tsiang. The Gaudavaha of Vakpatiraja is a poem in Maharashtra Prakrit, recording the defeat of an unnamed Gauda king by the poet's patron, Yasovarman of Kanauj (A. D 750). The Nava-sahasanka-charita (A. D. 1005) of Padmagupta (also called Parimala) in eighteen cantos alludes to the history of king Sindhuraja Navasihasanka of Malava. The Virkamankadeva-charita of the Kashmirian poet Bilhana (1038 A.D.) is an epical work in eighteen cantos describing the history of the Chalukya king of Kalyana, Vikramaditya VI (1076-1127) In this work there is however no real character-drawing, but merely the reflex of the epic. The Rajatarangini of Kalhana (12 th century) is a full and critical historical treatise relating to the chronicles of the kings of Kashmir. It is in the author's own words based on his own study of eleven works of former scholars as well as the still extant Nilamatapurana, Nripivalis of Kshemendra, Padmamihira, Chhavillakara, also of inscriptions, coins, temples, local traditions, family records, and on his personal knowledge. The treatise is completed in eight books the first four of which contain more or less traditional accounts which Kalhana himself frankly admits But in these real historical kings like Asoka, Kushanas (Huvishka, Jushka and Kanishka) and Hunas (Toraman and Mihirakula) are also mentioned. The last bocks

(v-viii) commencing with the first Karkota dynasty in the seventh century approach historical account, and ending at his own time in the thirteenth century. Jonaraja (who died in 1459) continued the history of Kashmir to the reign of Sultan Zainu l-abidin. His pupil Srivara covered in the Jaina Rajatarangini in four books the period 1459-1486 A. D. Prajya Bhatta and his pupil Suka in the Rajavalipataka carried on the tale to some years after the anrexation of Kashmir by Akbar in the sixteenth century. The sixth historical treatise of minor importance is the Somapalavilisa of Jalhana who wrote an account of the king of Rajapuri, Somapala, who was conquered by king Sussala of Kashmir. The Jain monk Hemachandra (1088-1172) wrote (1163) an account of the Chalukya king, Kumarapala, of Anhilvad, in the Kumarapala charita, otherwise, called Dvasraya-kavya which consists of two parts, one in twenty cantos in Sanskrit, and the other in eight cantos in Prakrit, and is intended to illustrate the rules of Sanskrit and Prakrit grammar. The Prithviraja-Vijaya by an unknown Kashmirian author in manuscript gives 'an account of the victories of the Chahamana king of Ajmer and Delhi, Prithviraja, who won a great victory over Sultan Shahabuddin Ghori in 1191, though he was shortly afterwards ruined and slain. There are two panegyrics relating to the Vaghelas of Gujerat, princes Lavanaprasada and Virodsavala. The first is the Kirtikaumudi of Somesvaradatta (1179-1252) which contains the eulogy of Vastupala and throws a good deal of life on various aspects of Indian social and political life. The same author in his Surathotsava in fifteen cantos supplies a 'political allegory' and gives an account of the poet's own history. Another panegyric is the Sukrita sankirtana of Arisimha in eleven cantos, which belongs to the thirteenth century. The Jagadu-charita of Sarvananda is a panegyric of a Jain merchant who aided his townsfolk in the terrible famine of 1256-1258 in Gujarat. The Ramapala-charita of Sandhyakara Nandin describes the feats of the powerful king Ramapala of Bengal (1084-113) who recovered his ancestral throne from an usurper, Bhima, and conquered Mithila. The last and the fourteenth historical poem is the Rajendra Karnapura of Sambhu which is a panegyric of Harshadeva of Kashmir (108-1101 A. D.).

This brief introduction to the long list of hi-torical poems should suffice to remove the false and widespread notion that in the Hindu culture there was no sense of history. It is assumed that the Hindu civilisation did not care to recall to mind the past events and derive lessons from them or because the Hindus were So engrossed with the thought of future salvation that the past or the present were of no importance to them. The family life of sacraments and sacrifices including numerous services (Sraddha) for ancestral worship. should refute this notion entirely.