Shonaleeka Kaul - The Making of Early Kashmir_Landscape and Identity in the Rajatarangini - 2018

EPUB, MOBI, AZW3

What is history? How does a land become a homeland? How are cultural identities formed? The Making of Early Kashmir explores these questions in relation to the birth of Kashmir and the discursive and material practices that shaped it up to the 12th century CE. Reinterpreting the first work of Kashmiri history, Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, this book argues that the text was history not despite being traditional Sanskrit poetry but because of it. It elaborated a poetics of place, implicating Kashmir’s sacred geography, a stringent critique of local politics, and a regional selfhood that transcended the limits of vernacularism.

Combined with longue durée testimonies from art, material culture, script, and linguistics, this book jettisons the image of an isolated and insular Kashmir. It proposes a cultural formation that straddled the Western Himalayas and the Indic plains with Kashmir as the pivot. This is the story of the connected histories of the region and the rest of India.

ASIN : 0199482926
Publisher : OUP India; Illustrated edition (20 February 2018)
Language : English
Hardcover : 222 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780199482924
ISBN-13 : 978-0199482924

https://india.oup.com/product/the-making-of-early-kashmir-9780199482924