Kalhana’s Rajatarangini and Kashmir catastrophe traditions

Record summary

M. A. Stein’s nineteenth-century work on Kalhana’s Rajatarangini provides a key documentary route into Kashmir’s historical and legendary accounts of waters, lakes, serpents, famine, and environmental disruption. Although the chronicle is not a single flood myth, its mixture of dynastic history, local tradition, and sacred geography allows comparison with the Nilamata Purana and later regional catastrophe narratives. The boundary between remembered event and literary legend is especially uncertain. Researchers should examine Stein’s notes and the Sanskrit text rather than relying on modern summaries.