Shrivara
šrÄ«vara(15th century) wrote a work on the history of Kashmir that adds to the previous works of
Kalhana
Kalhana ( sa, कलà¥à¤¹à¤£, translit=kalhaṇa) was the author of ''Rajatarangini'' (''River of Kings''), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be d ...
and
Jonaraja
Jonaraja (died A.D. 1459) was a Kashmiri historian and Sanskrit poet. His ' is a continuation of Kalhana's ' and brings the chronicle of the kings of Kashmir down to the time of the author's patron Zain-ul-Abidin (r. 1418–1419 and 1420–1470 ...
, thereby providing an update of the history of Kashmir till 1486
CE.
Śrīvara served at the courts of the four
Å ÄhmÄ«rÄ« Sulá¹Äns Zayn al-Ê¿Ä€bidÄ«n, Ḥaydar Å Äh, Ḥasan Å Äh and MaḥmÅ«d Å Äh until 1486, when Fatḥ Å Äh took power for the first time. Holding this office since 1459, ÅšrÄ«vara concentrated on writing the history he had personally witnessed. Unlike his predecessors Kalhaṇa and JonarÄja, who had completed the history of Kashmir in retrospect and continued it up to their respective times, ÅšrÄ«vara, as a contemporary historian, was left with only occasional retrospective additions going back to 1451.
His accounts, the ''Jaina''- and ''RÄjataraá¹…giṇī''s, written as an eyewitness, are characterised by a remarkably detailed density that hardly leaves out any aspect of his coeval horizon of observation and reflection on everyday Kashmiri culture, court life, politics, religion and society. The consolidation of the religious and political influence of a group of Sayyids, who had migrated from Baihaq in Iran under earlier Å ÄhmÄ«rÄ« Sulá¹Äns such as Sikandar, and the dynamics triggered by their attempts under Ḥasan Å Äh and MaḥmÅ«d Å Äh to participate in the reign, culminated in a devastating civil war between factions of indigenous Kashmiris (''kÄÅ›mÄ«rika'') and the immigrants from abroad (''paradeśīya, vaideÅ›ika''). These events are of particular research interest for tracing the historical ramifications of the Islamisation process in Kashmir. In terms of richness of detail of everyday culture also in its material aspects, ÅšrÄ«vara’s work is by far the most abundant source on Indo-Persian rule in early modern India and the living conditions under omnipresent threats of famines, natural disasters and warfare.
ÅšrÄ«vara’s work breaks off with MaḥmÅ«d Å Äh’s (first) dethronement followed by Fatḥ Å Äh’s ascension to the throne. The abrupt end of his account was however not caused by ÅšrÄ«vara’s death. Nineteen years later we hear from him again in the prelude to his Sanskrit translation of JÄmi’s (1414–1492) Persian ''Yusof o ZoleykhÄ'', entitled the ''KathÄkautuka''. ÅšrÄ«vara dated his prologue April 18, 1505. The sudden interruption of ÅšrÄ«vara’s ''RÄjataraá¹…giṇī'', coinciding with the transition of power in 1486, should therefore be sought in his removal from the position of court biographer. ÅšrÄ«vara had completed his Sanskrit rendering of JÄmi’s Persian composition (1483) only twenty-two years after its publication in Herat.
[Walter Slaje, Inter alia, realia: An Apparition of Halley’s Comet in Kashmir. Observed by Śrīvara in AD 1456. In: Highland Philology. Results of a Text-Related Kashmir Panel at the 31st DOT, Marburg 2010. Ed. Roland Steiner. (Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis 4). Halle 2012: 33–48. ISBN 978-3-86977-040-6]
References
{{Authority control
15th-century Indian historians