A Talk on the Rajataringini - the 12th century Sanskrit Historical Narrative from Kashmir

Arundhati Roy's comment that Kashmir was never an integral part of India reminded me of this talk titled "Rajatarangini and the Making of India's Past" delivered by Chitralekha Zutshi at the Library of Congress on July 10 2008.

This is how the Library of Congress describes the event: Nineteenth-century European orientalists and philologists considered the Rajatarangini--a 12-century Sanskrit historical narrative from Kashmir--as the only Indian text to which the status of "history" could be accorded. Chitralekha Zutshi analyzes several late-19th and early 20th-century translations of this text by both Europeans and Indians to illustrate the mediated nature of the process of colonial and nationalist production of knowledge about India's past--indeed of the idea of history itsef--in British India.

According to the website: Kluge Fellow Chitralekha Zutshi is associate professor of history at the College of William and Mary. She is the author of "Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity and the Making of Kashmir."

Click here to listen to the 65 minute talk. Kashmiri Pandit friends whom I sent this link to were very happy to receive it.

It is indeed a lovely and fascinating collection of webcasts that have been recorded and made available through the internet. There are times when I close the door of my study and listen to these talks. I think I would have done that even if I were living in Washington D.C. as there are times I feel too lazy to attend events.