Kalhana’s Rājatarangiṇī, a Sanskrit treatise written in the twelfth century, is a heavy text. The heaviness is not because of its content but on account of the many narratives that surround the text. It burdens the reader with several opinions that go far beyond the literary lexicon.
Written in Sanskrit in the twelfth-century, the Rajatarangini chronicles the rulers of the Kashmir valley from the earliest times – from the period of the Mahabharata to the reign of Jayasimha (1127 to 1159 CE), during whose reign the text was composed. Given that the list of kings the Rajatarangini chronicles goes back to the 19th century BCE, this is a comprehensive history as can be written by anyone. More importantly, at one time, the text served to refute the colonial myth that Indians had no sense of history.
Then, there is the matter of it being an important Sanskrit text – not merely just any other text. Sanskrit, as a language, is like the Rajatarangini—overburdened. It has been, and is, the vehicle of Hindu religious consciousness.
As a result, at one level, it is burdened with epithets like ‘the perfect language’ (perfect for computer programming, no less) and ‘the language of the gods.’ At another level, it is considered to be an ‘oppressive’ language; Dalit groups, who designated the tag ‘oppressor,’ point to the injunctions against Dalits learning Sanskrit, to justify the reasons for doing so.
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