HISTORY OF CASHMIR. 3 



Lucknow. To these two copies I have been able to add a third, which was 

 brought for sale in Calcutta ; and I have only to add, that both in that city 

 and at Benares, I have been hitherto unable to meet with any other trans- 

 cript of this curious work. 



The Rdjd Taringini has hitherto been regarded as one entire compositi- 

 on : it is however in fact a series of compositions, written by different au- 

 thors, and at different periods ; a circumstance that gives greater value to 

 its contents, as with the exception of the early periods of the history, the se- 

 veral authors may be regarded almost as the chroniclers of their own times,, 

 The first of the series is the Rdjd Taringini of Calhana Pandit, the son of 

 Champaca, who states his having made use of earlier authorities, and gives an 

 interesting enumeration of several which he had employed. The list includes 

 the general works of Suvrata and Narbnd.ra ; the History of Gonerda and 

 hrs three successors, by Hela Raja, an Ascetic ; of Lava, and his successors 



s 



to Asoca, by Padma Mihira ; and of AIoca and the four next princes by Sre 

 Ch'havillacara. He also cites the authority of Nila Mum/meaning probably 

 the Nila Parana, a Purana known only in Cashmir ; the whole forming a 

 remarkable proof of the attention bestowed by Cashmirian writers upon the 

 history of their native country : an attention the more extraordinary, 

 from the contrast it affords, to the total want of historical enquiry in any 

 other part of the extensive countries peopled by the Hindus. The history of 

 Calhana commences with the fabulous ages, and comes down to the reign 

 of Sangrama deva, the nephew of Dipda Rani, in Saca 949 or A. D. I0s7, 

 approaching to what appears to have been his own date, Saca 1070 or A. D. 



1148. 



The next work is the TUj&oali of Jona Raja, of which I regret to state I 

 have not yet been able to meet with a copy. It probably begins where Cal- 

 hana stops, and it closes about the time of Zein ulAb- ad-din, or the year of 

 the Hijra 815, as we know from the next of the series. 



The Sri Jaina Rdjd Taringini is the work of Sni Vara Pandita, the pu- 



A 2 



