Reconsidering the Question of the Seventh and Eighth <i>taraṅgas</i> of Kalhaṇa’s <i>Rājataraṅgiṇī</i>

Abstract

The Rājataraṅgiṇī, a Kashmiri royal chronicle written by Kalhaṇa in the 12th century, consists of eight taraṅgas (“waves,” i.e. chapters). In the 19th century, there was a debate about the authenticity of the last two taraṅgas. The debate seems to have been closed by G. Bühler and A. Stein, who asserted that one and the same Kalhaṇa wrote all eight taraṅgas. Shortly after this discussion was over, it was revealed by an incomplete manuscript that the eighth taraṅga had been revised for political reasons, and the text on which Bühler and Stein had based their assertion was a revised recension. By examination of this newly found manuscript, a question arose about the authenticity of the eighth taraṅga, which was full of rhetorical defects. Apart from textual credibility, it should be noted that the Rājataraṅgiṇī is a kāvya governed by the śānta-rasa (sentiment of equanimity), as declared in the first taraṅga. It is the seventh taraṅga which ends with the tragic death of King Harṣa, that is more suitable for the concluding chapter of a kāvya bearing the śānta-rasa, rather than the eighth taraṅga which ends with a eulogy dedicated to the king of the time. In the 19th century, scholars’ discussions concerning the Rājataraṅgiṇī were focused on the authenticity of its seventh and eighth taraṅgas. Now, however, the issue should be revisited as a question about the authenticity of the eighth taraṅga.