The fact behind the myth

Even though rich in content and solid in observations in its appraisal of ancient and early medieval Kashmirian society, Rajatarangini of Kalhana is indeed lacking in critical evaluation of men, matters, and crucial events of his time. Not only it is steeped in supernaturalism and mystifies the origin of Kashmir, but it also tends to exaggerate the achievements of some rulers like King Lalitaditya. Besides eulogizing some, it vilifies others and stretches the reign of the likes of King Ranaditya unbelievably beyond three hundred years and connects Kashmir’s earlier rulers like Gonanda with Mahabharata. It is not free from committing chronological errors at many places.

However, it may be remembered that Rajatarangini is essentially an epic poem. It is written in 8000 Sanskrit verses which are divided into eight sections or books. Its poetic composition and the resultant metaphoric flavour make its contents and tone look so exaggerated that they become vivid imagery of everything its author takes stock of. It is, therefore, genuinely recognized as a mahkavya prbandha or a beautiful sonnet for it does not leave a reader without engaging him/her to experience unfolding situations more absorbingly, fully, and entertainingly.

Indeed, Rajatarangini is a classical piece of literature, produced in 12th century Kashmir, that subordinates the historical and geographical evolution of Kashmir to the intervention of non-physical entities including angels, demons, gods, goddesses, and spirits. Kalhana takes recourse to supernaturalism when he deals with difficult historical situations, complex geographical phenomena, multi-layered narratives, and intertwined events.

Linking events to a mythical realm different from our physical world, which modern science teaches us is controlled by scientifically proven laws, is Kalhana’s wont. But his reliance on the interplay of unearthly forces, and the will of an invisible and unfathomable power in shaping historical events are not without a reason. These have of course a context and a profound historical background that inspired him to establish a close relationship between history and supernaturalism and, thereby, attribute every happening to the will of gods, goddesses, and deities.

In an attempt to explicate the gradual historical unfoldments, Kalhana does not, thus, shy away from merging poetry into occultism as fish merges in sea waters. By encompassing phenomena involving invisible agencies, he reflects the collective mood, attitude, ethos, beliefs, and conditions that existed in his time in Kashmir. Surely, he thinks theologically, and does not, therefore, sift real from unreal, and hallucinates about dreamlike things. He decidedly and dedicatedly follows an ancient usage and old tradition of Nila Naga, the author of Nilamata Purana, rather than setting a new trend for others to follow, as many believe.

A perusal of Rajatarangini gives us, thus, a feeling of a powerful drama script written by Kalhana with gods, goddesses, and deities as its main characters. He assigns them varying roles to give shape to his wonderland. They work seamlessly to fulfill his desire through physically visible managers whom they make to assume the royal, monarchical role to govern the country and enrich its civilizational stockpile with amenities never found there before.

These seeable guys are at the beck and call of indiscernible powers, operating day and night like puppets for the advancement of society. If they fail to satisfy the gods and earn their displeasure, or incur their wrath, they are severely punished and pushed into the hell of suffering. The unintended gates of decline and deterioration are also opened to the entire society for committing sins and failing to obey the divine command.

The main protagonist of his story is, however, Ardhanare Eshwara, Lord Shiva, whom Kalhana adores as the supreme Lord of the universe and creator of life on earth. He places him over and above all deities as he combines in himself Parvati, his consort to copulate with her to produce all life on earth, perform miracles, and manipulate forces of nature on a whim.

Kalhana’s act testifies not only to his firm belief in Lord Shiva as the supreme mover and shaker of history but also grounds him in the realm of a conventionally and religiously devout Brahman who tries to appease and seek the blessings of the Lord by composing Rajatarangini. With his attribution of unfolding of historical events to the invisible rather than historical forces, Kalhana seemingly attempts, thus, to:

1. i) uphold the belief in popular Hindu mythology; ii) reinforce the Shiva cult; and iii) promote the collective Brahmanical belief--along with its racist overtones--that were in a vogue in Kashmir since Nila’s days.

Originally based on the wisdom of Nila Naga, the author of Nilamata Purana, this belief system which, besides other things, forbade social intercourse with those considered subaltern sections of the society, began shaping the Kashmiri psyche over a long period in a manner that encouraged folklore and history to mingle together to take precedence over rational thinking, and in which the lines between fact and myth were blurred.

Nila’s Nilamata Purana enjoys the distinction of being Kasmira Mahatmaya, the most significant primary source and an invaluable compendium of useful information on Kashmir’s early history, religion, and society. It is the most stupendous work that embarks on contextualizing and conceptualizing Kashmir’s geography along with its spirituality and temporality in a prodigious but discursive manner, laying bare the basics of its structural built up, the principles of kingship and the secrets of power politics, all earmarks of its socio-economic life.

Constructing Kashmir’s socio-cultural ethnography, history, and religious dogmatism through his wisdom based on dharma, and fancy of gods and goddesses, Nila Naga, thus, leaves it to Kalhana to straighten and broaden it further chimerically with the help of the then available dynastic records, raja kathas (royal records), local traditions and folklore, in a coherent and communicable manner and pass it on to posterity through his writings.

What prompted Kalhana to repose unwavering trust and faith in folklore, myth, superstition, casteism, and other stuff, as propagated by Nilamata Purana, was, apart from his religion, largely the lack of a scientific temper that was yet to take precedence over the belief in myths in Kashmir. In the absence of the scientific devices and other tools available to us today for critical evaluation of happenings, Kalhana had, thus, no option but to have recourse to mythology to help him interpret both history and geography.

He draws answers to all his questions from his religion and does not dare to stray, even an inch, outside the proper ambit of the conventions, customs, and established norms. He follows Nila Nag’s path strictly and seeks divine help in unraveling history and widening the scope of supernaturalism to prevail over everything and scope out its uncanny things to overwhelm the social ecology and cultural ethos of Kashmir.

To the detriment of rational thinking, Kalhana gives, thus, a big boost to supernaturalism to influence people to solidify their attitudes accordingly and dye them in the colours chosen by Nila. It strengthened the irrationality so much that its people were left with no alternative but to adhere to unrealistic things, miracles, magic, and ghost stories, fortifying their belief in invisible forces and incomprehensible fantoms. So enormous was its impact that superstition rather than reason governed their minds, inspiring even Buddhist and Persian mythologies to follow the trend which continues to overwhelm deeply the people of Kashmir even today.

Kalhana promoted Nila’s discourse and kathas (folklore) with a long added emphasis, proclaiming that Kashmir was initially too cold and wet to support any human habitation. It was submerged in waters that were drained by the will of Lord Vishnu who bestowed miraculous abilities to the great sage, Kashyapa, the son of Marichi, the son of Brahma--for helping Kashmir to transform itself into a habitable land. By cutting a gap into a mountain, Lord Vishnu struck the lake at Baramulla to vanquish the demon Jalodbhava and relieve Kashmir of his tyrannies.

This development also helped the serpent Nagas to secure their existence by driving away Pichakas, their counterparts and traditional enemies, enabling Kashyapa, the sage, to persuade the Brahmans of neighbouring areas to settle down in Kashmir. The Nagas’ triumph over their adversaries is trumpeted as the conquest of good over evil and the purification of Kashmir’s soul from depravities and inanities that had sunk the land below the surface of water.

The contents of Nila’s narrative and fantasies are, thus, meditated and upheld by Kalhana in his inimitable poetic style in Rajatarangini. By confirming how marshes and lakes were drained supernaturally to create a new land of habitation, he seeks to integrate the story of Kashmir’s origin into his religion to register its ascendancy and elevate the miraculous prowess of the unearthly forces who according to him performed unbelievable feats. Crediting them for doing what happened through a prolonged geological process and scientific and historical forces was to validate people’s belief in the non-existing powers.

It was a belief that had gone deeply down the mouth of a multitude of Kashmiris of all hues, inciting them at different historical junctures to attribute the habitation of Kashmir to the intervention of divine forces recognized by their respective religions. Such a belief was bound to ensnare them in the net of irrationalism, gullibility, and obscurantism that prevented them from using the tool of critical thinking to evaluate events. Instead, fate became the sole deciding factor in shaping the events in the history of Kashmir.

By not recognizing cause as a catalyst, a harbinger of effect, and an outcome generated by one or more causes, Kalhana tries to underscore the importance of supernaturalism in shaping events. Cause and effect relationship does not fit in his scheme of things, he is doggedly disposed towards upholding the culture of dogmatism, fanaticism, obscurantism, and fatalism. He does not, therefore, consider the cause as the main designer of effect that cannot come before the cause in a timeline of events.

Such an understanding of history, though flawed according to our perspective, is flawless for Kalhana because it aligns with his ideas and times, and his people’s belief system and religion. Any deviation, on his part, from supernaturalism would have, thus, created social tensions and many problems for him and his community to face. It would have affected his credibility and rendered him a liar in the eyes of his compatriots like Ibn Battuta whose credibility was doubted by his people for his stories about India with which they were least familiar. They declared him a liar when he told them that Sultan Mohammad Shah of Delhi had a census of men, women, and children made, and ordered free distribution of food provisions to them for six months. And he ordered bags of coins to be scattered into the crowd that had gathered for his reception on his return from a long journey.

Proving miraculous powers of invisible gods and goddesses as a hoax would have presumably invoked him ‘their wrath,’ and provoked Brahmans and Purohits to censure him for which he seems to have been least prepared as a devout Hindu. That would have landed him in jail by the monarch and even endangered his life on charges of blasphemy.

Venturing speculatively on exposing the myth behind supernaturalism, through reflective criticism, critical evaluation of happenings, and objective examination of life, seems to have been a hazardous path for Kalhana to traverse. Such an undertaking was also fraught with the consequences of bringing him closer to the fate of Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher who was condemned to death for his progressive ideas that were at odds with what was generally accepted then as truth.

Neither would Kalhana have liked to be the predecessor of Galileo, a natural philosopher who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1633 for claiming that Earth orbits the Sun. He spent the last nine years of his life under house arrest and died in 1642.

Nor would have Kalhana desired to become a Darwin of his times, the scientific thinker whose concept of evolution created a stir, instigating the Church to eliminate his theory from modern public school science curricula, and urging teachers to teach the biblical book of Genesis/the creation story found in it.

Kalhana, like Herodotus, seems to have been comfortable, in going along with the ethos of his times, and, thereby, showing honour to deities and reverence to traditions and culture by giving preference to mythology over rationalism. He could never think of disrespecting the prevailing religious dogmatism. He not only upheld what was believed to be sacrosanct but also strengthened the Kashmiri belief in miracles and the mysterious ways of God.

He preferred to become the ambassador of the Kashmiri folklore, myth, and gossip, and a representative of invisible forces, and divine entities. For fear of public reprimand, social ostracization, and above all for his firm faith in his dharma, he stuck resolutely to supernaturalism like his contemporaries who too were peddling the same boat for considerations of their cultural values, traditions, and beliefs. He allowed the myth to mix up with history to sensationalize the miraculous stories of Daves and Devatas.

Like his contemporaries, Kalhana presents a perfect analogue of the toddler who, according to Ibn Khaldun, landed in jail along with his criminal father. On growing up into a child, he was surprised to see meat that was sent in for the meals of the father son duo. Son’s curiosity prompted the father to tell him that it was mutton. “What is mutton”, asked the child. In reply the father gave him a full description of a sheep to make him understand the entire process of mutton preparation. But the child asked again “is sheep like a rat?” “No”, said the father. The father explained the huge difference between the two. Similar exchanges took place relating camel meat and beef. This was because the only creature the child had ever seen while living in prison was the rat, and, therefore, he considered all creatures to be subspecies of rat.

We can not, thus, blame Kalhana for such an interpretation of history because he was manifesting his age and culture. We can not also dub him communal as there was no conflict between Hindus and Muslims. The latter had yet to settle down in Kashmir in his time. His Rajatarangini decidedly possesses the quality of being the sole source material on the early history of Kashmir which sheds a flood of light on it and unreservedly exposes the machinations of his Brahmanical class and the shabby deeds of monarchs who indulged in rap and incest. While recognizing its worth and indispensability, Abdul Ahad Azad, the great revolutionary poet of Kashmir has to say this:

کلہن غنی تہ صرفی سیراب کری یم آبن۔

سُی آب سانہِ باپتھ زہرِ ہلال آسیا۔۔

But we need to exercise extreme caution in evaluating Rajatarangini’s contents because history is unfairly and ruthlessly misused as a vote bank to justify nefarious projects by raising the dog whistle for many to demean some group. Its critical analysis is a prerequisite for any genuine and comprehensive research undertaking on Kashmir’s past and for a meaningful appreciation of the reasons behind racism and discrimination perpetrated against subaltern Kashmiris. Such research is bound to avoid giving modern meanings to words in vogue in Kalhana’s time. For example the term Maleech today implies the derogation of Muslims, but for Kalhana it has quite a different meaning. He uses it to signify foreigners or Yavanas.

It should be realized that the terms used in the past in any language have acquired new meanings today. The foreign translators of Rajatarangini have failed to appreciate this. They have translated it in times when colonialism ruled the roost. It needs to be read, reclaimed, and re-envisioned through fresh translations by natives to decolonize it and enable us to evaluate its historical worth and interpret it more scientifically.

Dr. Ahad, a historian, is the author of several books on Kashmir