The Making of Early Kashmir : Landscape and Identity in the Rajatarangini

Shonaleeka Kaul

ISBN 10: 0199482926 / ISBN 13: 9780199482924

Published by Oxford University Press Jul 2018, 2018

About this Item

Neuware - What is history How does a land become a homeland How are cultural identities formed Offering cogent new answers to these fundamental questions, The Making of Early Kashmir is a cultural history of the birth of Kashmir and the discursive and material practices that constituted it into a historical region up to the 12th century CE. It critically reinterprets Kalhana's Rajatarangini, explores its understanding of regional selfhood, and traces Kashmir's connectedhistories with the rest of India.

Seller Inventory # 9780199482924

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Making of Early Kashmir : Landscape and Identity in the Rajatarangini
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Jul 2018
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199482926
• ISBN 13: 9780199482924
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 203W x 137H x 20D millimeters 203 millimeters width by 137 millimeters height by 20 millimeters depth
• Weight: 340 grams

About this title

Synopsis

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 duree 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.

About the Author

Shonaleeka Kaul is Associate Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.