KASHMIR

John Nemec
Introduction
General Overviews
Historical Works
Primary Sources
The Rjataragi of Kalhaa
The Nlamatapura
The Haracaritacintmai of Jayadratha
Other Rjataragis
Secondary Sources
Sanskrit Literary Works
Mahkvyas
Gnomic, Didactic, and Satirical Poetry
Erotic Poetry
Stotras, or Devotional Hymns
Plays/Dramas
Kemendra
The Bhatkath in Kashmir
The Mokopya
Aesthetic Theory
Editions
Translations
Studies
stric Works
The Nyya
Buddhist Philosophy
Grammatical Traditions
Works on Dharma
aiva Philosophy
aiva Scriptural Writings
aiva Post-Scriptural Writings
The aiva Siddhnta
Spanda
Pratyabhij
Abhinavaguptas Trika-Based Exegesis
The Pacartra & Other Vaiava Writings
Buddhists in Kashmir
The Emergence of Islam in Kashmir
Introduction
The Kashmir Valley of around the ninth to twelfth centuries was, in many regards, the preeminent South
Asian center for Sanskritic culture and learning of its day. The Brahmins who authored the philosophical,
literary, aesthetic, and other works that were produced there in this period were drawn to the region from
across the Indian subcontinent. Yet, once settled there they shared in common a particular Kashmiri
identity, as is exemplified by their common subscription from an early date to one and the same Vedic

tradition, that of the Khaka recension of the Black Yajurveda. This coincidence of intellectual
cosmopolitanism and geographic regionalism proved tremendously fruitful, as the range and quantity of
groundbreaking and genre-making works that were produced there will attest. Royal patronage did much
to cultivate this cultural richness, as the many contributions in poetry and aesthetic theory illustrate, these
being important concerns of the premodern South Asian court; but this was not the only factor. The
relative security of the Valley also offered reliable protection from outside military interference, even while
desirable external influences were permitted entrance into Kashmir. Perhaps most notably, Tibetan
Buddhist pilgrims frequented Kashmir in order to study in the Valleys thriving monasteries, which were
influential in the period in question even if few archaeological traces of them have survived to the present
day. Another influence was economic: trade along the Silk Road is likely to have contributed to the
Valleys material prosperity, which facilitated the cultivation of its cultural wealth; and the Valley itself was
agriculturally self-sufficient. Finally, Kashmir wasand isconsidered to be one of the most beautiful
places of the entire sub-continent, and people simply wanted to live there. The Brahmins of Kashmir were
evidently more willing to reveal information concerning themselves than were many other authors of
premodern Sanskritic works, and one therefore can know more about the Valley than other
contemporaneous centers of learning. Indeed, so many Sanskrit-language works are associated with the
Valley that one may be forgiven for feeling as though the bibliography of Kashmiri contributions is
asymptotic to that of premodern Sanskrit learning tout court. Yet, a fuller historical picture, were it
available, might have served to contextualize Kashmirs towering cultural accomplishments, by elevating
awareness of other contemporaneous cultural centers, even if this would do nothing to diminish the
accomplishments of the Kashmiri authors themselves. Given the seemingly ubiquitous scope of
Kashmirs cultural accomplishments, it is not possible to list every conceivable bibliographic entry in this
study; and a number of significant Sanskrit works must be left out of the present bibliography, for two
reasons. First, the prosopograhical record of premodern South Asia remains opaque, and a number of
works that undoubtedly had an influence in the Valley are not listed here for want of definitive evidence of
any Kashmiri provenance. Second, the scholarly record is as-yet incomplete: a number of texts from our
period (particularly but not exclusively tantric works) have yet to emerge from the raw archive of
unpublished manuscripts. It is a testament, then, to Kashmirs colossal cultural influence that the present
bibliography can offer only incomplete evidence of it.
General Overviews
Several works offer general overviews of, or at least points of entry into, the cultural and intellectual life of
the Kashmir Valley in and around the historical period in question. Ray 1969 gives a broad account of the
cultural, social, and political history of the Valley. A combination of Witzel 1994 and Sanderson 2009
furnishes a detailed study of the religious and cultural lives of the Brahmins who authored so many of the
various works surveyed in this bibliography. Sanderson 1985 presents a highly condensed, but
philosophically significant, study of Brahminical theories of personhood and agency as conceived by the
orthodox and esoteric traditions of the Kashmir Valley in the period in question. NAUDOU 1980 offers a
comprehensive survey of the history of Buddhism in Kashmir. Finally, Bhler 1877 offers a first-hand
account of his quest to collect manuscripts in and around the Valley and furnishes a detailed narrative,
both contemporaneous and historical, of Brahminical life there.
Bhler, Georg. 1877. Detailed Report of a Tour in Search of Sanskrit MSS, Made in Kashmir, Rajputana
& Central India. Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Extra number 34a: 1-90.
This dated but nevertheless seminal essay is divided into three parts. In the first, Bhler offers a
first-person account of his travels. The second, titled The Kamirian Brahmins, details the
habits and preferences of his informants. Finally, a third section offers a thorough account of the
manuscripts he collected, placing them in their proper intellectual and historical contexts. Three

appendices list the manuscripts collected and quote selected extracts from them.
Naudou, Jean. 1980. Buddhists of Kamr. Translated by Brereton and Picron. Delhi: Agama Kala
Prakashan.
This foundational work surveys a great range of historical, philosophical and other sources in the
course of presenting a comprehensive overview of the place of Buddhism in premodern Kashmir.
It notably offers significant attention to the longstanding Tibetan links with Kashmir.
Ray, Sunil Chandra. 1969. The Early History and Culture of Kashmir. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
A number of books in print are similar to this one, which accesses a range of Sanskrit (and other)
sources to map the cultural, political, economic, literary, archeological, and religious histories of
Kashmir . A rendering of the authors 1957 Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Calcutta, this
volume is apparently the first among such survey works; it offers a reliable and readable account
of the Valley and its history.
Sanderson, Alexis. 1985. Purity and Power Among the Brahmins of Kashmir. In The Category of the
Person: Anthropology, Philosophy and History, ed. by S. Collins, M. Carrithers, and S. Lukes, 190216.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
This article presents a condensed and complex, but lucid and penetrating, account of the
relationship between tantric and non-tantric Brahminical traditions in the Kashmir Valley of the
period in question. An essay of deserved renown, it examines the philosophical significance of
the relevant traditions.
Sanderson, Alexis. 2009. Kashmir. Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume One: Regions, Pilgrimage,
Deities. Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen. Leiden and Boston: Brill. Handbuch der Orientalistik. Zweite
Abteilung, Indien, vol. 22, pp. 99126.
Relying heavily on the account of Kalhaas Rjataragi but also accessing a range of original
(often unpublished) Sanskrit works, this article offers a substantial review of Brahmanism,
classical Hindu (principally aiva) traditions, and the cultural life of the Valley from its prehistory
until the rise of Islam.
Witzel, Michael. 1994. The Brahmins of Kashmir. In A Study of the Nlamatapura: Aspects of
Hinduism in Ancient Kashmir. Edited by Yasuke Ikari. Kyoto: Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto
University, pp. 237-294.
This essay examines the cultural life of Brahmins in premodern Kashmir, accessing a range of
historical and literary works to cull the relevant information; copiously annotated, it helpfully
outlines the contours of Brahminical prestige, patterns of immigration and emigration, habits of
learning, and other, related topics.
Historical W orks
Kashmiri writers, taken collectively, appear to stand as something of an exception to the rule that authors
of premodern Sanskrit works intentionally erase datable historical markers from their productions. This
phenomenon is most clearly exemplified by the fact that Kashmiris themselves wrote history, most
famously the Rjataragi of Kalhaa (12th century), though other historical accounts were also
composed, such as the now lost Npvali of Kemendra, which is mentioned in the prolegomenon of
Kalhaas magnum opus. This emic concern for history has been matched in contemporary scholarship
by an equally robust proliferation of historiographical writing on the Valley. Both the extant primary
sources for such historical work and, following this, key secondary works are reviewed in what follows.

Primary Sources
Contemporary scholars who have addressed historical questions related to premodern Kashmir often rely
on the account of the Rjataragi, though many also consult a series of sources that were first
examined by Kalhaa himself. These include the primary works examined in this section, though
Kalhaa had access to inscriptional and other sources that are now lost.
The Rjataragi of Kalhaa
Once considered the one and only work of Sanskrit that offers a self-consciously historical view of events
and concerns, this text is a rich and complex poem (kvya) chronicling the lives of the kings of Kashmir
from the first days of the last of the four Hindu eons, the Kali Yuga, until the poets day. Completed in
1148/9 C.E., the work records innumerable details of Kashmiri cultural and political life in its own mature
style of verse. The classical study of the text is bound with the authoritative (if occasionally dated)
translation, that of Stein [1900] 1979. His study of the text offers a detailed examination of the historical
sites mentioned in the text and does the work of identifying the verifiable historical facts offered by
Kalhaa. Its focus is mostly on positivist history, however, and leaves scope for other approaches. And,
indeed, other studies, such as those found in Cox, et. al. 2013, reexamine the place of the work in the
history of history/historiography in South Asia. As is well known, much of the inscriptional evidence of
Kashmir has been lost, and along with it a number of other works that would be relevant to the study of
Kashmiri history. One consequence of this fact is that, though it is emphatically not the only work of
Sanskrit that is self-consciously historical in its orientation, the Rjataragi has become the preeminent
resource for the study of Kashmiri history.
Cox, Whitney. Literary Register and Historical Consciousness in Kalhaa: A Hypothesis. In Whitney
Cox, et. al., Editors. 2013. Special Issue: The Rjataragi of Kalhaa. Indian Economic and Social
History Review 50/2: 131-160.
Cox argues that the Rjataragi is the culminating effort of a series of Kashmiri Sanskrit poets
who developed a peculiarly Kashmiri style of writing that the author labels the Kashmirian
lokakath. This style of writing did much to shape Kalhaas interpretation of events in
Kashmir, says Cox, who concludes the Rjataragi is the work of a sardonic moralist in a world
where morality is in a real sense absurd.
Cox, Whitney, et. al., editors. 2013. Special Issue: The Rjataragi of Kalhaa. Indian Economic and
Social History Review 50/2.
Herein is a collection of seven essays that reconsiders the place of Kalhaas masterwork in the
context of the study of Sanskrit literature and history. The authors address a range of questions
including the interrelationship of narrative and history in the work, the style of the text, and the
relationship of the work to other historical traditions in South Asia.
Klver, Bernhard. 1971. Textkritische und Philologische Untersuchungen zur Rjataragi des Kalhaa.
Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH.
This volume surveys the manuscripts and editions of the Rjataragi, followed by several
studies addressing: Kalhaas use of permitted variations of metre (i.e., vipuls); his use of
Sanskrit particles; the prolegomenon of the text; and the works historical accuracy. An Appendix
examines the rivers of Kashmir, suicide, and the taking of oaths, all as described in the text itself.

McCrea, Lawrence. ntarasa in the Rjataragi: History, Epic, and Moral Decay. In Whitney Cox, et.
al., editors. 2013. Special Issue: The Rjataragi of Kalhaa. Indian Economic and Social History
Review 50/2.
Exploring Kalhaas statement that the ntarasa rules supreme in the Rjataragi, McCrea
argues that the selected emotional mood ties the poem to the Mahbhrata and that the sort of
quiescence evoked is one of despair with worldly endeavors: even good kings regularly go
bad and the most promising political endeavours lead only to decay, loss and despair.
Obrock, Luther, ed., in collaboration with Katrin Einicke. 2013. Marc Aurel Stein: Illustrated Rjataragi,
Together with Eugen Hultzschs Critical Notes and Steins Maps. Halle an der Saale: Universittsverlag
Halle-Wittenberg.
Notes recovered from the Western Manuscripts Collection of the Bodleian Library record Steins
revised views of the Rjataragi in a new prolegomenon and in two appendices of philological
and historical notes to his published text. Nearly 100 photographs and two of the authors maps
are included, as are four reprinted articles recording Hultzschs emendations to large portions of
the text.
Stein, Sir M. A., ed. and trans. [1900] 1979. Kalhaas Rjataragi: A Chronicle of the Kings of Kamr.
3 vols. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
This heavily annotated, complete translation is accurate and useful. The introduction and notes
take verifiable historical data as their primary interest and Stein identifies the geographical
landmarks and architectural monuments mentioned in the text, a major contribution. Appendices
treat the Kashmiri monetary system and reproduce the author's Memoir on Maps illustrating the
Ancient Geography of Kamr.
Zutshi, Chitralekha. 2011. Translating the Past: Rethinking Rajatarangini Narratives in Colonial India,
The Journal of Asian Studies 70/1: 5-27.
This essay outlines the use of the Rjataragi by nationalist and colonialist figures, examining
the ways in which the framing of disparate translations of the text allowed for its significance to be
cast in contrasting lights.
The Nlamatapura
This local Pura was certainly a Kashmiri product and was a source that Kalhaa readily accessed to fill
various historical gaps or to add color to his narrative. The work deals extensively with the sacred
geography of the Valley and also records a series of myths and stories that can help one to flesh out the
cultural life of premodern Kashmir. While it has been translated in full, no critical edition of the text exists,
and there is much scope for further analysis.
Ved Kumari. 1968-1972. The Nlamatapura. 2 volumes. Srinagar: J&K Academy of Art, Culture and
Languages (distributed by Motilal Banarsidass).
A reworking of the authors Ph.D. dissertation, these volumes offer accessible and complete, but
sometimes inelegant, translations of this local pura.
Ikari, Yasuke. 1994. A Study of the Nlamatapura: Aspects of Hinduism in Ancient Kashmir. Kyoto:
Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University.
Twelve essays, accompanied by a historical map and other back-matter, offer technical and
detailed studies of this key source.

The Haracaritacintmai of Jayadratha

This thirteenth-century work, which includes thirty-two stories, contains much information about Kashmiri
cultural life, including the (aiva and Vaiava) rites and festivals of the Valley. Its major focus is the cult
of iva at sacred sites, and Alexis Sanderson (Sanderson 2009) suggests that the work records a series
of anonymously authored puric texts associated with such sacred sites, these texts having been lightly
edited by Jayadratha. Sanderson further argues that the author, who was himself a kta aiva initiate
and the brother of Jayaratha, the famed commentator on Abhinavaguptas Tantrloka, compiles this text
in order to address an audience beyond the aiva initiate, namely that of the aiva laity. The work
remains untranslated in any Western language, apart from occasional renderings of excerpts, and it
merits further philological and interpretive investigation.

The Haracharitachintmani of Rjnaka Jayadratha. 1897. Edited by Mahmahopdhyya Pandit

ivadatta. Bombay: Nirnaya Sgara Press.
This is the commonly recognized edition of the text. No fully critical edition is available to date.
Sanderson, Alexis. 2009. The aiva Age. In Genesis and Development of Tantrism, Edited by Shingo
Einoo. Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo.
Sanderson engages the work in question, outlining its scope and purpose in a subsection of this
very extensive article the title of which is Converting the Outsiders.
Other Rjataragis
Just as Kalhaas kvya was not the first historically-focused work ever to have been composed in
KashmirKalhaa himself refers not only to Kemendras (now lost) Npvali, as already noted, but also
to a variety of other sources that informed his own effortso, too, was Kalhaas masterwork succeeded
by no fewer than three additional texts titled Rjataragi. These include the works by that name of
Jonarja, who chronicles the history of Kashmir from 1149/50 to 1458/59, of rvara (1458/59-1486), and
of uka (1486-1586). In point of fact, the chronicling of history in Kashmir extended up to the nineteenth
century, as Slaje 2004 indicates. Unlike Kalhaas poem, these works have received little attention,
though they deserve to be critically edited and require fresh translation and extensive interpretive study.
Cataloged in this section is only a pair of scholarly works, including what is something of a provisional
translation of the trio of post-Kalhaa Rjataragis and a single, brief but informative, study of the same.
Dutt, Jogesh Chandra. [1898] 1993. Medieval Kashmir: Being a Reprint of the Rajataranginis of Jonaraja,
Shrivara and Shuka, as translated by J. C. Dutt and published in 1898 A.D. under the title Kings of
Kashmira, Vol III. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors.
A short introduction prefaces readable renderings of these three sequels to Kalhaas historical
masterpiece. The reader should be warned, however, that Dutt translated the editio princeps of
these Rjataragis, which was produced in Bengal in 1835 and which records manyand
many significantcorruptions. As such, these translations are compromised, even if they are the
best we have at present.
Slaje, Walter. 2004. Medieval Kashmir and the Science of History. Austin, TX: The South Asia Institute of
The University of Texas.
Slaje considers the significance of the post-Kalhaa Rjataragis in this published version of
the Madden Lectures, which were given at the University of Texas at Austin in 2003-2004. In it,
he considers the transmission of the texts in question, entertains selected paleographic
questions, and shows precisely how Kashmiri historical evidence has been developed and
received down to the present day.

Secondary Sources
An extensive series of works similar to that of Ray 1969 (about which see General Overviews) could
be listed in this section, as such histories of Kashmir largely crib the Rjataragi of Kalhaa (or even, it
appears, the work of Ray himself). Some of the items that do not merely replicate this approach and that
could rightly be counted as secondary sources on Kashmiri history have been cited in the section devoted
to Kalhaas masterwork (see *The Rjataragi of Kalhaa*), this because of the unparalleled value of
that work for any historiographical study of Kashmir. Enumerated in this section, then, are only a few of
the most significant secondary works on Kashmiri history. Numismatics are addressed by Cunningham
[1894] 1967, architecture by Kak [1933] 2002, geography by Stein 1899, the history of Sanskrit culture in
a provocative essay by Pollock 2001, and the history of legal consciousness, or rather selected episodes
of it, in Davis and Nemec 2012. Finally, and of particular note, Witzel 1990 explores the historiographical
practices of premodern South Asia and considers Kalhaas use of them. Despite these contributions
much remains to be examined in the study of premodern Kashmiri history. The Valleys distinctive temple
architecture deserves further study and greater contextualization in the history of architecture, for
example, though Meister 2006 offers an exemplar of the potential to be found in engaging the historical
record of Kashmiri material culture.
Cunningham, Sir Alexander A. [1894] 1967. Coins of Mediaeval India: From the Seventh Century down to
the Muhammadan Conquests. Varanasi: Indological Book House.
This book offers a short, but historically grounded and careful, numismatic survey of Kashmir,
along with three pages of plates illustrating exemplars of coins from, most notably, the Krkoa,
Utpala, and Lohara dynasties. A short analysis of the monetary system of Kashmir of the period
is also included.
Davis, Donald R., Jr. and John Nemec. Legal Consciousness in Medieval Indian Narratives. Journal of
Law, Culture and the Humanities, 2012. doi: 10.1177/1743872112443762.
This essay examines the legal consciousness exhibited in medieval narrative sources, principally
the Rjataragi and the Kathsaritsgara. The authors redirect the largely empirical approach
of legal consciousness studies toward the literary and historical analysis of Sanskrit texts. In
doing so, they examine the constructed image of law as the hegemonic domain of elite Brahmins
and kings, along with the assumptions and awareness of law and legal procedure in the context
of medieval Kashmir.
Kak, Ram Chandra. [1933 ] 2002. Ancient Monuments of Kashmir. Reprinted Edition. New Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass.
Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim structures are cataloged and described in this volume, and are
pictured in a series of 77 black-and-white plates. This is a useful resource that maps the
architectural history of the Valley.
Pal, Pratapaditya. 1975. Bronzes of Kashmir. Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt.
This is a beautiful book that illustrates multiple exemplars of Hindu and Buddhist iconography of
the Valley from roughly the sixth to twelfth centuries. Comparable works from outside the Valley
are also illustrated in an appended series of plates.
Meister, Michael. 2006. Mountain Temples and Temple-Mountains: Masrur. Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians 65/1: 26-49.
Meister argues that an analysis of Ngara stone architecture in the lower Himlayas suggests a

northward movement of political influence from the plains of India, rather than from Kashmir to the
lower hills; this analysis is based on an examination of the temple architecture at Masrur, whose
very architectural form was meant to symbolize a world-kingdom.
Pollock, Sheldon. 2001. The Death of Sanskrit. Comparative Studies in Society and History 43(2): 392426.
In this innovative essay Pollock examines causes of civilizational decline and identifies the
Kashmir Valley of around 1140 as the locus of the death of Sanskrit, where he suggests the
great tradition of literary production in Sanskrit gasped its last breaths (though of course with
exceptions).
Stein, Mark Aurel. 1899. Memoir on Maps illustrating the Ancient Geography of Kamr. Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal Extra No. 2: 1-232.
Entirely reproduced in Steins edition of the Rjataragi, this long essay examines the
topography of the Kashmir region in tremendous detail, accessing Greek, Chinese, and Arab
sources in addition to analyzing numerous Sanskrit-language texts. An indispensible resource.
Witzel, Michael. 1990. On Indian Historical Writing: The Role of the Vavals. Journal of the
Japanese Association of South Asian Studies 2: 1-57.
This groundbreaking article illustrates the debt of the Rjataragi to the rather more panegyrical
Vaval literature, this by way of examining a parallel Nepali tradition.
Sanskrit Literary Works
The contributions of Kashmiri authors to Sanskrit literature are many and varied, and the production of
works of belles-lettres has a long pedigree in the Valley, one that substantially predates the period here
under study. Mtgupta, for example, was a Kashmiri king of circa the sixth century who wrote his own
poetry and employed Meha (a.k.a. Bhartmeha) in his court, the famed author of the now lost
Hayagrvavadha. And Amaru, the probably eighth-century author of the famed Amaruataka, is
suspected to have hailed from Kashmir. (The evidence for this is somewhat uncertain, however, and
indirect: scholars speculate that the fact that the akaradigvijaya identifies king Amaru as a Kashmiriit
is his body that akara is said to have possessed in the course of learning firsthand all there is to know
of the ars amatoria in order to win an argument with Maanamiras wifeindicates that the author of
the work was very likely a Kashmiri, as well.) Dmodaragupta certainly hailed from the Valley, and he
served as a minister in the court of king Jaypa (r. 773/4-804/5). He of course authored the
Kuanmata. According to Kalhaa, moreover, four other court poets served in the same court:
Manoratha, akhadanta, Caaka, and Sadhimat. Ratnkara also was Kashmiri and lived in the Valley
at the end of the ninth century under the reign of a pair of kings, Cippaajaypa (r. 826-838) and
Avantivarman (r. 855/6-883). ivasvmin also lived under the reign of the latter king. Being himself a
Buddhist (despite his name), he is of course the renowned author of the Kapphibhyudaya, an epic
poem in which the protagonist, a king of south India named Kapphia, converts to Buddhism. Bilhaa
(late eleventh century) also hailed from the Valley, though he left during the tumultuous reign of Kalaa
(1064-1088) to become the court poet of King Vikramditya VI of the western Clukya dynasty, for whom
he wrote the Vikramkadevacarita. And the list goes on: Bhallaa, ilhaa, ambhu, Jalhaa, Kalhaa,
Abhinanda (about whose prose narrative see Cox 2013, reviewed in *The Rjataragi of Kalhaa*),
Kemendra, Bhaa Nryaa, Makha, Somadevaa veritable whos-who of artists has contributed
landmark works across a great range of genres, no doubt in part due to a long tradition of court patronage
in the Valley. To wit, we have seen reviewed a number of narrative texts that have been somewhat
arbitrarily cataloged under the heading of Historical Works, the Rjataragi not least among them.

What follows is a review of major literary works in eight (partially emic, partially etic, and again somewhat
arbitrary) sub-categories. Those seeking a broader overview of these materials may wish to consult
either A. K. Warders (1972-2011) eight-volume survey of Indian literature, titled Indian Kvya Literature,
or the survey of Maurice Winternitz (1963), as these studies regularly deal with the many Kashmiris who
are integral to the history of Indian literature in Sanskrit.
Warder, A. K. 1972-2011. Indian Kvya Literature. 8 Volumes. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas.
An indispensible survey of Indian works of belles-lettres, Warders monumental contribution is a
first place to look for a detailed account of many of the relevant Kashmiri works here under
review.
Winternitz, Maurice. 1963. A History of Indian Literature, Volume 3, part 1: Classical Sanskrit Literature.
Translated with additions from the German by Subhadra Jh. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Available in a reprinted edition, this is a classic study, fluidly translated into English from the
German original. It offers a comprehensive and highly reliable accounting of the gamut of literary
works produced in South Asia in premodernity. Now somewhat antiquated, this remains an
authoritative and useful resource for those interested in Sanskrit (and Prakrit) literary works.
Mahkvyas
Taking inspiration for their plots from the Sanskrit Epics and Puras, these works served as vehicles to
display the poets skill by offering ornate and detailed descriptions of kings, battles, the quest for love, and
the like. As David Smith summed it up, the overriding concern of the court epic is to proclaim the triumph
of the hero and the defeat of the foe. Often, poets sought to outdo the previous efforts of their brethren.
Kashmiri contributions to the genre are notable, if understudied. All of course came from the hands of
court poets, and all deserve further study, and unbroken renderings. Our collection of mahkvyas would
reach back to the sixth century if Bhartmehas Hayagrvavadha had come down to us, as this poet
worked in the court of Mtgupta, according to the Rjataragi, but alas the text is lost. We do have the
prodigious contribution of Ratnkara, a poet of the 9th century, in the form of the Haravijaya, for the edition
of which see Paita Durgprasda and Kntha Puraga Parab (1890) and for a key study of
which see Smith 1985. Around the same time, ivasvmin composed the Kapphibhyudaya (see
Shankar 1989). Bilhaa, the erstwhile Kashmiri who ventured to the south in the late eleventh century,
authored the famed Vikramkadevacarita, edited by Nagar (1945) And, finally, Makha, who was
Kalhaas contemporary and lived during the reign of King Jayasiha (r. 1128-1149), composed the
rkahacarita, which was also edited by Paita Durgprasda and Kntha Puraga Parab
(1887). Here reviewed, then, are the key editions and selected studies of these works.
Nagar, Murari Lal, Ed. 1945. The Vikramkadevacarita Mahkvya. The Princess of Wales Sarasvati
Bhavana Texts Series 82. Benares: Government Sanskrit College.
This useful edition of Bilhaas magnum opus is preceded by the edition found in: Georg Bhler,
Ed. 1875. The Vikramnkadevacharita, A Life of King Vikramditya-Tribhuvana Malla of Lakya,
Composed by his Vidypati Bilhaa, Edited with an Introduction. Bombay Sanskrit Series 14.
Bombay: Government Central Book Depot.
Paita Durgprasda and Kntha Puraga Parab, Eds. 1887. rkahacarita of Makha, with the
Commentary of Jonarja. Kvyaml 3. Bombay: Niraya Sgara Press.
This is the standard edition of this mahkvya in its 25 sargas.

Paita Durgprasda and Kntha Puraga Parab, Eds. 1890. Haravijaya of Ratnkara, With the
Commentary of Rjnaka Alaka. Kvyaml 22. Bombay: Niraya Sgara Press.
This prolific pair of editors has again offered the principal edition of a major work of kvya, this
time the massive Haravijaya in its 50 sargas and 4351 verses.
Shankar, Gauri, Ed. 1989. ivasvmins Kapphibhyudaya, or Exaltation of King Kapphia. With an
Appendix and Romanized Version of Cantos i-viii and xix by Michael Hahn. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
The present edition includes the reissue of Gauri Shankars editio princeps of this mahkvya,
along with re-edited sections of the text that were prepared by Michael Hahn and with the help of
a manuscript not available to Shankar. No unbroken translation of the work is known to me.
Smith, David. 1985. Ratnkaras Haravijaya: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Court Epic. Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
This volume offers a reworked version of the authors D.Phil. dissertation, in which are examined
(in the first three chapters) the history of the genre in questionthat of the mahkvyafollowed
by a detailed study of Ratnkaras contribution to it in the remaining eight chapters.
Gnomic, Didactic, and Satirical Poetry
Well known are the gnomic and didactic verses that are so frequently peppered into various prose works
of Sanskrit. Such verses are often clever and delight with their fluid communication of wisdom. Satire, for
its part, is a handmaiden of wisdom, and Kashmiris composed a number of works that sardonically
illustrate the foibles of human nature and the dangers of failing to understand the ways of the world.
Perhaps Kemendra (whose works are largely reviewed in a following section of this study) is the most
robust Kashmiri contributor of satirical works, and Kashmiri authors have composed a number of
freestanding poetic works that, at least as Winternitz saw it, themselves constitute notable contributions to
the gnomic and didactic literature. Among them is the Bhallaaataka of Bhallaa, which, as Winternitz
(1963) indicates (vol. 3, part 1, p. 161), is similar to the Ntiataka that is attributed to Bharthari. Bhallaa
lived during the reign of akaravarman (883-902), and his eponymous century of stanzas offers a
solemn accounting of worldly experience and reads as something of a denunciation of the transience of
lived experience (see Vasudeva 2005). The Mugdhopadea, in turn, is a work of the circa twelfth-century
poet Jalhaa that offers some three score of verses that furnish instructions for foolish people who
succumb to the tricks of prostitutes or fall into other traps. (Somadeva Vasudeva has typed in the text,
which is available on GRETIL in 66 verses.) ilhaa Mira, a Kashmiri who departed for Bengal,
authored the ntiataka, a work that Winternitz (1963) suggests (vol. 3, part 1, p. 162), is similar to the
Vairgyaataka, itself attributed to Bharthari: it borrows and alters a number of verses from Bhartharis
collection in narrating the problems with the world of sasra and the virtues of renunciation (see
Schnfeld 1910). ambhu, in turn, penned two panegyrical poems that praise the famously wicked king,
Hara of Kashmir (r. 1089-1101), for whom he served as a court poet (see Vedakumr Gha 1973).
Finally, perhaps the greatest contribution of all is found in the form of Dmodraraguptas famed
Kuanmata (edited and translated in Dezs and Goodall 2012), which attracted a pan-Indian audience
and delights to this day by revealing the bawds counsel, the secrets of the art of seduction, and
something of the hard realities of succumbing to those who have mastered them.
Dezs, Csaba and Dominic Goodall, Eds. and Trans. 2012. Dmodaragupta-viracita Kuanmatam: The
Bawds Counsel, Being an Eighth-Century Verse Novel in Sanskrit by Dmodaragupta, Newly Edited and
Translated into English. Groningen: Egbert Forsten.
This verse novel, here beautifully rendered and accompanied by a critical edition of and learned
introduction to the text, presents two connected moral tales that offer a stylized treatment of the

cultivated life in its various dimensions, shedding light on Kashmiri social life in the authors day.
Dmodaragupta, it should be added, is said in the Rjataragi to have lived in Kashmir in the
time of King Jaypa, who reigned in the Valley from 773/4-804/5 A.D.
Schnfeld, Karl. 1910. Das ntiataka: Mit Einleitung, Kritischem Apparat, Ubersetzung und
Anmerkungen. Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz.
This fine volume offers a fully critical edition that records numerous variant readings and parallel
passages, followed by an annotated German translation of the work.
Vasudeva, Somadeva. 2005. Three Satires, by Bhallaa, Kemendra, and Nlakaha. Clay Sanskrit
Library. New York: NYU Press and the JJC Foundation.
This compact volume offers face--face translations of three great satirists, the first two among
them being Kashmiris. The 100 free-standing, aphoristic verses of Bhallaa explore the follies of
human experience and are composed in a variety of metres. Kemendras Kalvilsa, in turn,
offers a playful and sardonic exploration of six depravities: sanctimoniousness, greed, lust,
unfaithfulness, fraud, and intoxication.
Vedakumr Gha, Ed. and Trans. 1973. Rjendrakarapra: Hindbhshnuvda tath
Kvyamarmabodhin ippaiyo Savalita. Jamm Tav: Rmapratpa.
ambhu lived during the reign of King Haradeva (1089-1101). He penned a work titled the
Anyoktimuktlat, or Pearl Creeper of Expressions of Something Else as Warder translated it,
which is ornamented with alliterations and rhymes. He also composed the Rjendrakarapra to
glorify the memory of the notorious king who patronized him, this latter work being found in this
volume along with a Hindi translation.
Erotic Poetry
It should come as no surprise that Kashmiris wrote ornate poems that evoke erotic themes. Such was of
course not uncommon in the Sanskrit tradition, where erotic poetry not infrequently was fused with
devotional overtones. The Kashmiri contributions are some of the most famous, and pioneering. After
all, Bilhaas Caursuratapacik (translated in Barbara Stoller Miller 1991) is a rightfully popular
contribution to the genre, and the fame of the Kashmiri compositions would be tremendously augmented
if we could count Amaru a Kashmiri with any certainty, of course because his eponymous work is
probably the single most prominent exemplar of the genre. (Somadeva Vasudeva has produced a
Sanskrit e-text of Bilhaas work; it is available for download from GRETIL and is based on the edition
that was edited by S.N. Tadpatrikar, Poona Oriental Series 86, Poona: Oriental Book Agency, 1966).
Finally, if McCrea and Bronner (2001) are correct, Ratnkaras Vakroktipacik pioneers the very use
of vakrokti or verbal perversions that are found in so many Sanskrit literary works (though it does so in
recounting a lovers quarrel, between iva and Prvat, more than it offers an explicitly erotic poem, so its
inclusion here is somewhat arbitrary).
McCrea, Lawrence and Yigal Bronner, The Poetics of Distortive Talk: Plot and Character in Ratnkaras
Fifty Verbal Perversions (Vakroktipacik), Journal of Indian Philosophy 29.4(2001): 435-464.
This article treats in detail the use of verbal perversionsthe intentional misunderstanding of
bivalent expressionsin advancing the plot and developing the texture of the dialogue between
iva and Prvat in Ratnkaras famous, yet understudied, poem. The authors also argue that
Ratnkara himself may well have invented the literary trope so clearly exemplified in this work.

Miller, Barbara Stoller. 1991. The Hermit and the Love-Thief: Sanskrit Poems of Bharthari and Bilhaa.
Penguin Classics.
An elegant translation of Bilhaas Caursuratapacik. Though possibly improperly attributed
to Bilhaa, this was almost certainly a Kashmiri production. It narrates the poets surreptitious
encounter with the daughter of the king, who, it is said, discovered their affair and condemned
Bilhaa to death. The verses meant to inspire the kings pardon, though this should not be taken
as an historically accurate narrative.

Stotra s, or Devotional Hymns

Devotional hymns have a long pedigree in Kashmir, and they reached a popularand perduring
audience. In fact stotras are among the only works of Sanskrit to continue to be composed with any vigor
in the centuries following the emergence of Muslim rule in the Valley, as Pollock noted in his Death of
Sanskrit (reviewed under the Secondary Sources subsection of the section entitled *Historical Works*).
A recent Ph.D. dissertation on the subject, that of Dr. Hamsa Stainton (2013), thoroughly charts the
history of the genre in Kashmir and offers a sensitive analysis that examines many works that cannot be
mentioned here. Staintons dissertation is the primary resource for those interested in this area of
Sanskrit learning. Included in this section are references to some of the key works and studies, notably
the three stotras that received commentary from the hand of Kemarja, Abhinavaguptas premiere
disciple: the Smbapacik (translated and studied in Bumer 2006), the Stavacintmai of Bhaa
Nryaa (for which see Silburn 1964), and the ivastotrval of Utpaladeva (translated in Bially 1987). A
selection from Abhinavas own hand is also found in translation in Muller-Ortega 2000. And, not least of
all, Daniel Ingalls (1989) offers a study and rendering of thirty-seven verses of nandavardhanas famed
Devataka.
Bailly, Constantina Rhodes. 1987. Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir: A Translation and Study of
Utpaladevas Shivastotravali. SUNY Series in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
A brief introduction precedes a complete and fluid translation of Utpaladevas devotional hymns.
The volume also includes a reprinting of the Chowkhamba edition of the original Sanskrit text.
Bumer, Betttina, 2006. Srya in a aiva Perspective: the Smbapacik, A Mystical Hymn of
Kashmir and Its Commentary by Kemarja, in Sahdaya: Studies in Indian and South East Asian Art in
Honour of Dr. R. Nagaswamy, eds. Bettina Bumer, et al. Chennai: Tamil Arts Academy, 1-28.
Introductory comments precede a full translation of the stotra, along with a study of Kemarjas
commentary, and Bumer also explores the association of Srya with aivism. The essay is
supplemented with three of the authors photos of the famed Mrtaa temple of Kashmir.
Daniel H.H. Ingalls. 1989. nandavardhanas Devataka, in Journal of the American Oriental Society
109/4: 565-575.
Ingalls examines a citrakvya (picture stanza) of the Kashmiri aesthetician, nandavardhana.
The poem is said to rely on tricks to convey meaning, while lacking in poetic suggestion (dhvani)
and emotional content (rasa), fatal flaws according to nandavardhana himself. Ingalls explains
the contradiction in presenting a wonder of Sanskrit high culture: a literal circle of syllables
depicted by the verses themselves.
Muller-Ortega, Paul E. 2000. On the Seal of ambhu: A Poem by Abhinavagupta. In Tantra in Practice,
Edited by David Gordon White. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 573-586.
This essay offers an English translation of the Anubhavanivedanam, a stotra of the famed Tantric
aiva scholar and polymath, Abhinavagupta. Muller-Ortega also explains the various meanings

of the term mudr, which is of concern insofar as Abhinava takes the famed mbhav mudr
(translated by Muller-Ortega as the seal of ambhu) as the primary subject-matter in the poem.
Stainton, Hamsa. 2013. Poetry and Prayer: Stotras in the Religious and Literary History of Kashmir.
Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University.
This dissertation explores the close relationship between poetry and religious devotionalism in
Kashmir. Though two chapters map the legacy of the Stutikusumjali of Jagaddhara Bhaa, a
fourteenth-century collection of highly developed stotras, a detailed study of hymns that were
composed in Kashmir from the ninth to twelfth centuries is also included. This is the definitive
work on the subject.
Silburn, Lilian. 1964. La Bhakti: Le Stavacintmai de Bhaa Nryaa. Texte traduit et comment par
Lilian Silburn. Paris: E. de Bouccard.
A long, contextualizing introduction precedes the Sanskrit text and full translation of the poem,
which is explained by Silburn, along with translations of selected passages of Kemarjas
commentary.
Plays/Dramas
Familiar circumstances have impoverished the record of the production of dramatic works in Kashmir.
First and foremost, less is known of the lives of the Sanskrit playwrights than of the court poets of
premodern South Asia, and as a result one cannot be certain of the place, or time of composition, of
many Sanskrit dramatic works. Can one possibly suggest that the author of the Veisahra, one
Nryaa Bhaa, was a Kashmiri and the same person as the author of the Stavacintmai, for
example? Two significant dramatic compositions are certainly the productions of Kashmiris, however.
The first is Bhaa Jayantas gamaambarafollowing Csaba Dezs, who in turn is following Alexis
Sanderson, we may see the title rendered with Much Ado About Religion, a wonderful satire that
skewers religious hypocrisy while revealing much about contemporaneous Kashmiri society. The second
is the Karasundar(nik) of the Kashmiri migr Bilhaa. The first is available in a handy edition that
was published in the Clay Sanskrit Library (Dezs 2005). The second work has received little critical
attention, to my knowledge, since the editio princeps was first put into print in Pandit Durgprasda and
Kntha Puraga Paraba 1888.
Dezs, Csaba. 2005. Much Ado About Religion, by Bhaa Jayanta. Clay Sanskrit Library. New York: New
York University Press and the JJC Foundation.
The Naiyyika philosopher Bhaa Jayanta (c. 850-910) penned this satirical work, which pillories
the opponents of a young and ambitious Mmsaka named Sakaraa. Even the famed
Kashmiri Buddhist epistemologist, Dharmottara, is defeated. Sakaraa also sees a radical sect
expelled from the Valley, namely, the eccentric black-blankets. A play surprisingly detailed in its
philosophical discussions, one that should not be missed.
Pt. Durgprasda and Kntha Puraga Paraba, Eds. 1888. The Karasundar. Kvyaml 7.
Bombay: Niraya Sgara Press.
Bilhaas famed play is here edited, to my knowledge, for the first time. A work about a historical
figure, namely a Clukya prince of Ahilv named Kara who was the son of Bhmadeva (r.
1064-1074). The play narrates the princes furtive and ultimately successful quest to win the love
of a Vidydhar princess.
Kemendra

I devote an entire subsection to the late tenth to 11th century polymath Kemendra, this in order to
highlight the many understudied and underappreciated writings of this prolific author, who, as Winternitz
(1963) put it, has worked in all the spheres. Such a study is particularly called for because,
unfortunately, earlier generations of Indologists have not given the author his due. Winternitz himself
paraphrases Sylvian Lvi in suggesting that Kemendras Bhratamajar and Rmyaamajar are
deprived of all beauty, for example; and elsewhere he further judges Kemendra a tedious and biting
pedant in all his works. Georg Bhler similarly suggested that Kemendras poetry is akin to bad prose
versified. Such comments unfortunately reflect what until recently was something of a common
consensus regarding the standard of this authors many significantand beautifulcompositions.
Kemendra indeed did write a great number of significant works that cover a range of genres, including
aesthetic theory and poetics, prosody, satire, erotics, didactic and gnomic literature (as we have already
seen), devotional hymns, narrative and epic literature, and, depending on ones views of the authorship of
the Lokapraka (about which see Bloch 1914), something akin to lexicography. The
Bodhisattvvadnakalpalat, re-edited by De Jong (1979), merits particular mentioned for its influence on
Tibetan literature. Generally speaking, his shorter writings, which are difficult and intricate, have received
greater attention than his longer works. Editions of these shorter texts may be found in Rghavcrya
and Padhye 1961, who refer to them as Kemendras minor works. Translations of selections of the
same are offered in Baldissera 2005, Haskar 2009 and 2011, Sato 1994, Sryaknta 1954 and in
Vasudeva 2005 (the last having been cited in **Gnomic, Didactic, and Satirical Poetry**). Scholarship on
Kemendras Bhatkathmajar is reviewed in the section entitled *The Bhatkath In Kashmir*. His
Rmyaamajar and Davatracarita, however, are virtually deprived of study, though editions of the
texts were published many years ago, and they deserve sustained scholarly analysis and merit full
translations. Indeed, much work remains to be completed in the study of this fascinating and prolific
polymath, and it is hoped scholars will approach Kemendras oeuvre with renewed vigor in the coming
years.
Baldissera, Fabrizia, Ed. and Trans. 2005. The Narmaml of Kemendra: Critical Edition, Study and
Translation. Beitrge zur Sdasienforschung 197. Heidelberg: Sdasien-Institut Ergon Verlag.
The edition herein is based on the evidence of the single extant manuscript, which was also used
in two earlier editions of the text. The translation is a first, and is highly accurate. The
Narmaml skewers the kyasthascorrupt clerks who selfishly controlled the royal bureaucracy
in Kashmir in Kemendras timeand also the false virtue of the Kaulas.
Bloch, J. 1914. Le Lokapraka: Un manuel du scribe cachemirien au XVIIe sicle, attribu Kemendra.
Paris: Librairie Paul Geuthner.
Bloch has shown that the Lokapraka, at the least, cannot be entirely of Kemendras hand, for
it frequently uses Persian terminology and otherwise dates itself to the reign of Shah Jahan (r.
1628-1658). An unbroken French translation is included herein. An English rendering is available
in: Lallanaj Gopla, Ed. and Trans, 2008, Lokapraka of rkemendra, Varanasi: Ratana
Offsets Limited.
Haskar, A. N. D., Trans. 2011. Three Satires from Ancient Kashmir. New York: Penguin Books.
Herein are translated three of Kemendras minor works (as they are referred to in
Rghavcrya and Padhye 1961): the Narmaml, the Kalvilsa, and the Deopadea. All are
satirical works, and while Haskar helps to make them accessible to a wider audience, one wishes
he made other selections as all the three were previously translated into English.
Haskar, A. N. D., Trans. 2009. The Courtesans Keeper: A Satire from Ancient Kashmir. Delhi: Rupa and

Company.
This is to my knowledge the first English translation of the Samayamtk, which, according to
Winternitz, was completed in 1050 C.E. and is partly more brilliant than the work of
Dmodaragupta, on which it was possibly based. Winternitz further says it falls within the
boundary of pornography, but its eight chapters or samayas offer greater insight into
contemporaneous social life than this judgment suggests.
De Jong, J. W. 1979. Textcritical Remarks on the Bodhisattvvadnakalpalat (Pallavas 42-108). Studia
Philologica Buddhica. Tokyo: Reiyukai Library.
Offers improvements to the edition of the majority of the 108 pallavas of Kemendras influential
contribution to avadna literature. The editio princeps was published in 1888-1917 by Sarat
Chandra Das and Pait Hari Mohan Vidybhaa (and, after 1906, Satis Chandra
Vidybhaa). See also the contributions of Marek Mejor (1992, Kemendras
Bodhisattvvadnakalpalat, Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies) and Martin
Straube (2009, Studien zur Bodhisattvvadnakalpalat, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag).
Rghavcrya, E. V. V. and D. G. Padhye, Eds. 1961. Minor Works of Kemendra. Sanskrit Academy
Series 7. Hyderabad: Osmania University Press.
Eleven texts are included in this skillfully, if not entirely critically, edited collection of Kemendras
minor works, and a number of them await translation. Six useful appendices, including one that
offers a list of terms not treated in Monier-Williams or Apte, round out this useful volume. The
Osmania University editions are the place to begin when engaging these works.
Sato, Hideaki. 1994. The Deopadea of Kemendra: Instruction for the Country, Calcutta: Writers
Workshop Publication.
This publication is a product of P. Lals famed writers workshop, and it offers an accessible
translation of this didactic satire.
Sryaknta str. 1954. Kemendra Studies: Together with an English Translation of his
Kavikahbharaa, Aucityavicracarc and Suvrttatilaka. Poona Oriental Series 91. Poona, India:
Oriental Book Agency.
This useful study offers a solid overview of Kemendras writings, along with renderings of three
short works that the author composed in addressing aesthetic theory and issues related to the
production of literary works.
The Bhatkath In Kashmir
A work of one Guhya that is said to have been written in an obscure Prakrit, Paic, but which is now
lost, the Bhatkath has a clear legacy in the history of Indian literature. Five works, written in Sanskrit,
Prakrit, and Old Tamil, are demonstrably based on this seminal narrative. Two of the five versions are
products of Kashmir: the Kathsaritsgara of Somadeva and Kemendras Bhatkathmajar. (Both
include the cycle of stories of the famed Vetlapacaviatik.) Donald Nelson (1974, 1978) has done
much of the work in reconstructing the Bhatkath from the surviving compositions that are based in it,
though it must be observed that Lacte (1908) anticipated some of his conclusions. It is perhaps no
surprise that Kemendras adaptation of the Bhatkath remains woefully understudied, and untranslated,
given the degree to which scholars have historically undervalued Kemendras writings. (It does appear
in a published edition, however, namely that of Mahmahopdhyya Pait ivadatta and Kintha
Puraga Parab 1901.) The Kathsaritsgara for its part is accessible, along with the copious notes
that were subsequently added by N. M. Penzer, in the form Tawneys unbroken rendering of the narrative.

James Mallinson (2007-2009) has also published the first two of a projected seven volumes of an
unbroken retranslation of Somadevas work.
Kemendra. 1901. Bhatkathmajar. Edited by Mahmahopdhyya Pait ivadatta and Kintha
Puraga Parab. Kvyaml 69. Bombay: Niraya Sagara Press.
This is the regularly accessed edition of the text. As noted, a full study and translation of this work
is not yet available, though highly desirable.
Lacte, Flix. 1908. Essai sur Guhya et la Bhatkath, suivi du texte indit des chapitres XXVII a XXX
du Nepla-mhtmya. Paris: Ernest Leroux.
Lacte devotes a long chapter to the Kashmiri renderings of the Bhatkath in this, the
foundational and path-breaking study of Guhyas famous work.
Nelson, Donald. 1978. Bhatkath Studies: The Problem of an Ur-text. Journal of Asian Studies 37/4:
663-676.
Nelson examines the relationship of five versions of the Bhatkath of Guhya, and this article
stands as a sort of prcis of the authors Ph.D. dissertation, Nelson 1974.
Nelson, Donald. 1974. The Bhatkath: A Reconstruction from Bhatkathlokasagraha, Perukatai and
Vasudevahii. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University
of Chicago.
Nelsons doctoral dissertation offers a full accounting of his reconstruction of the Bhatkath,
which is offered in a refined but well truncated form in his Bhatkath Studies: The Problem of an
Ur-text (1978).
Penzer, N. M., The Ocean of Story, Being C. H. Tawneys Translation of Somadevas Kathsaritsgara,
Now Edited with Introduction, Fresh Explanatory Notes, and Terminal Essay. 10 Vols. London: privately
printed for subscribers only. Available for download at www.archive.org
Tawneys translations offer an unbroken and clean rendering of Somadevas concentric series of
stories. Penzers extensive notes offer innumerable useful references to the gamut of the worlds
traditions of story literature. This is an incomparable project for the ages, a classic contribution to
the study of comparative myth and story literature.

The Ocean of the Rivers of Story (Kathsaritsgara). 2007-2009. Translated by Sir James Mallinson. 2
Vols. Clay Sanskrit Library. New York: NYU Press and JJC Foundation.
The discontinuation of the Clay Sanskrit Library probably spells the demise of the last five
volumes of what was projected to be a seven-volume, unbroken rendering of the
Kathsaritsgara. In print are the early sections of the story in a smooth translation, which faces
the original Sanskrit text, appearing in the idiomatic transliteration scheme of the Library.
The Mokopya
Walter Slaje (1997) is to be credited with discovering the presence in Kashmir of a textual strand of what
is commonly referred to as the Yogavsiha. Identifying itself as the Mokopya, this work differs greatly
from the former, as it is a text that includes substantial modifications to what must have been the shared
textual ancestor of the pair. It is certainly a Kashmiri production, as Slaje 2005 illustrates, and it was
composed near 950 A.D., as Hanneder 2005 suggests. The Mokopya is immune to the
Vednticization applied to the Yogavsiha, which rendered that work more sympathetic to akaras
philosophical advaita. Other changes recorded in the Yogavsiha include the heavy overlay of a

devotionalism to Rma, the removing of what could be read as anti-vedic and anti-ritualistic passages of
the text, and the suppression or outright elimination of Buddhist terms and influences, obscuring thereby
the affinities found in the Mokopya with Gauapdas Kriks and the Mahyna Lakvatrastra.
The Universittsverlag Halle-Wittenberg and Harrassowitz have published critical editions of large
sections of the text and of fragments of the commentary of the non-dualist Kashmiri Bhskarakaha, with
additional volumes forthcoming. (Only the commentary on the first two, and part of the third, chapters or
prakaraas of the Mokopya remain extant.) German translations of the works are planned, as well, but
not yet in print. Slaje, Jrgen Hanneder, and Bruno Lo Turco have each had a hand in preparing these
editions. The entries listed below constitute a trio of key general overviews of the text.
Slaje, Walter. 1997. The Mokopya Project. Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 77:
209-221.
This brief account announces the discovery of the Kashmiri text and offers an outline of and
status report on the proposed edition of the Mokopya in its six chapters or prakaraas.
Slaje, Walter. 2005. Locating the Mokopya. In The Mokopya, Yogavsiha and Related Texts.
Edited by Jurgen Hanneder. Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 21-36.
This article identifies Kashmirand rnagar and the slopes or the top of Pradyumna hill more
specificallyas the locus of composition of the Mokopya. The evidence offered is based in a
judgment that a handful of passages from the text must record the personal observations of the
author. (The text also includes personal observations of sites in Central Asia.)
Hanneder, Jurgen. 2005. The Mokopya: An Introduction. In The Mokopya, Yogavsiha and
Related Texts. Edited by Jurgen Hanneder. Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 9-19.
This article ponders briefly the transmission history of the Mokopya, reviews selected
manuscript evidence of the text, and offers a view regarding the date of composition of the work
in question. It should be read as a pair with Slaje 2005.
Aesthetic Theory
The mature phase of the Alakrastra, beginning in the late eighth century and building and innovating
upon the foundational works of (the non-Kashmiris) Bhmaha and Dain, is almost exclusively a
Kashmiri phenomenon. First, Vmana, who worked in the court of King Jaypa (r. 773/4-804/5), sought
to systematize aesthetic theory, mimicking Pinis Adhyy in the process; and Udbhaa, who also
worked in Jaypas court, sought to incorporate semantic theory into aesthetics. Rudraa followed
these authors by a few decades, perhaps, and reinvigorated the analysis of bivalent expressions or lea.
nandavardhana, in turn, was employed in the court of Avantivarman (r. 855-83) and in his famed
Dhvanyloka gave a place of privilege to dramatic theory by suggesting that all poetic works evoke in
their audiences one among a series of fixed emotional states or rasas, which were first outlined in the
Nyastra in a list of eight, to which was added a ninth, the ntarasa. This was to be accomplished by
way of suggestion (dhvani), a linguistic capacity nandavardhana said his predecessors had failed to
note. Following him, Bhaa Nyaka, who probably lived during the reign of akaravarman (r. 883-902),
sought to explain how poetry could invoke a particular emotional mood not in the actors of a play, but in
members of the audience. He drew inspiration from the Mms in positing the existence of a certain
illocutionary power or bhvan in poetry that functioned similarly to arthavdas in the Veda. (Alas, his
Hdayadarpaa is lost, though his ideas are reconstructed in Pollock 2010). Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 9751025) followed Bhaa Nyaka in this and added his own religious concerns regarding the nature of self,
and self-realization or liberation. Kuntaka (late 10th century), on the other hand, authored a
comprehensive compendium of aesthetic linguistic forms that harkened back to the pre-rasa theorists.

Next, Mammaa with the Kvyapraka (c. 1100) offered a synthesis and culminating effort in the history
of Alakrastra, he being the one who made Kmra poetics Indian poetics, as Gerow put it. This
work developed a typology of poetic forms, utilizing nandavardhanas mutual distinction of their
denotative, metaphorical, and suggestive dimensions. Ruyyaka (a.k.a. Rucaka), the early 12th-century
author who wrote the Alakrasarvasva and also composed a commentary on Mammaas
Kvyapraka (the Kvyaprakasaketa) and Vyaktiviveka, was also a systematic thinker who brought a
stric style to aesthetics. Reviewed below are selected editions, translations, and studies that engage
these myriad theoretical efforts. The first resource to access is Bronner 2012, an excellent and concise
summary consulted for the present rsum.
Bronner, Yigal. 2012. Sanskrit Poetics. In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics,
4th edition, edited by Roland Greene and Stephen Cushman, 12441250. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
This short yet detailed article outlines the history of Sanskrit aesthetics in three periods: early
history, the middle period (largely a Kashmiri phenomenon), and the new poetics of early
Modernity. This is the single best point of entry for those who are new to this field of learning.
Gerow, Edwin. 1978. Indian Poetics. A History of Indian Literature, vol. 5, fasc. 3. Edited by Jan Gonda.
Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Gerow treats the majority of the major Kashmiri contributors to the history of Alakrastra and
offers a useful, and somewhat longer, complement to the summary found in Bronner 2012.
Editions
The following list includes many of the key editions of the major works of the Kashmiri aesthetic
theoreticians. While much new scholarship on aesthetics has emerged in recent years, most notably with
the work of Sheldon Pollock and his students, much remains to be done, as is perhaps best exemplified
by the nearly complete absence of text-critical scholarship in this area of learningthat is, the works in
question are published but only in uncritical editions. Similarly, the early publication dates of many of the
editions here reviewed further mark the need for fresh textual work in the study of Alakrastra. The
materials that follow may be classed in two groups: those that include Sanskrit editions only, and those
that include translations with the Sanskrit texts. The former group includes the edition of Rudraas
Kvylakra (Durgprasda and Kntha Puraga Paraba 1886), Ruyyakas Alakrasarvasva
(Janaki and Raghavan 1965), Mammaas Kvyapraka (Karmarkar 1965), nandavardhanas
Dhvanyloka (Pattbhirma stri 1940), Rudraas gratilaka and Ruyyakas Sahdayall (Pischel
1886), and Udbhaas Kvylakrasagraha (Telang 1915). The latter includes, in what here follows,
only a rendering of the Kvylakrastravtti (Jh 1971) and Kuntakas Vakroktijvita (Krishnamoorthy
1977, itself reviewed in Lariviere 1980). Additional relevant translations are reviewed in the sub-section
entitled *Translations*.
Pt. Durgprasda and Kntha Puraga Paraba, Eds. 1886. Kvylakra of Rudraa. Kvyaml
2. Bombay: Niraya Sgara Press.
This useful edition includes the eleventh-century commentary of the Jain scholar, Namisdhu.
Janaki, S.S. and V. Raghavan, Eds. 1965. Alakrasarvasva of Ruyyaka with the Sajvan Commentary
of Vidycakravartin. Delhi: Meharchand Lachmandas.
This useful text and study should be compared to the edition of the Alakrasarvasva of Pt.
Durgprasda and Kntha Puraga Paraba, volume 35 in the Niraya Sgara Press
series.

Jh, Bechana, Ed. and Trans. 1971. Kvylakrastravtti of crya Vmana, With the
Kvylakrakmadhenu of r Gopendra Tripurahara Bhpla. Edited with Hindi Translation. Kashi
Sanskrit Series 209. Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.
This is the edition that serves as the basis for Masahiro Takanos e-text of the work in question,
available from the Gttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages (GRETIL).
Karmarkar, Raghunath Damodar, Ed. 1965. The Kvyapraka of Mammaa, With the Sanskrit
Commentary Blabodhin by the Late Vamanacharya Ramabhatta Jhalakirkar. 7th edition. Poona:
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
The present edition of the text was rendered in Jhas 1967 translation, titled The Kvyapraka of
Mammaa, With English Translation, which is listed in the subsection entitled *Translations*,
where renderings of works of aesthetics are reviewed.
Krishnamoorthy, K., Ed. 1977. The Vakrokti-jvita of Kuntaka: Critically Edited with Variants, Introduction,
and English Translation. Dharwad: Karnatak University.
This volume builds on the work of S. K. De, whose editions of the text (dated to 1923 and 1928
and 1961) showed gradual improvement in his understanding of the composition of Kuntakas
Vakroktijvita. (The text that has come down to us remains incomplete, however.) The English
translation is accurate and readable, a useful addition to the scholarship.
Lariviere, Richard. 1980. Review of K. Krishnamoorthy, Ed., The Vakrokti-jvita of Kuntaka: Critically
Edited with Variants, Introduction, and English Translation. In Journal of the American Oriental Society,
volume 100/3, p. 324)
This review notes the ways in which Krishnamoorthys edition is neither definitive nor fully critical,
helpful though it is.
Pischel, R, Ed. 1886. Rudraas gratilaka and Ruyyakas Sahdayall: With an Introduction and
Notes. Kiel: C. F. Haeseler.
A relatively succinct introduction precedes the beautifully set devangar editions of these two
works. What distinguishes this volume is the fact that it records variant readings for each text
from selected manuscripts, thereby offering what is nearly the only properly critical work on texts
of Alakrastra.
Pt. Pattbhirma stri, Ed. 1940. Dhvanyloka of nandavardhana, with the Commentaries of
Abhinavagupta and rrmaraka. Kashi Sanskrit Series 135. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series
Office.
This is the edition that served as the basis for the translations of Ingalls, et. al., which is reviewed
in the *Translations* subsection of the section entitled *Aesthetic Theory*.
Telang, Mangesh Rmkrishna, Ed. 1915. The Kvylakra Sagraha by Udbhaa Bhaa, with the
Commentary of Prathrendurja. Bombay: Niraya Sgara Press.
This is a useful, if not a critical, edition of Udbhaas major contribution to aesthetic theory, along
with Prathrendurjas Kvylakrasralaghuvtti.
Translations
Not all the key works of Indian aesthetic theory have been translated, and much work remains to be
completed in this area of scholarship on the subject. We have already seen that the Vakrokti-jvita of

Kuntaka is translated into English in Krishnamoorthy 1977, and Vmanas Kvylakrastravtti is

rendered in Hindi in Jh 1971 (both items are reviewed in the subsection entitled *Editions* of the section
entitled *Aesthetic Theory*).. To these we add reference to the famed rendering of the Dhvanyloka and Locana, offered in Ingalls, et. al. 1990, to an early and now reprinted rendering in German of Ruyyakas
Alakrasarvasva found in Jacobi 2010, to Jhas famed interpretive translation of the Kvyapraka of
Mammaa, to a Hindi rendering of Mahimabhaas Vyaktiviveka with Ruyyakas commentary in Dwivedi
1964, and to a complete English translation of the Nyastra of Bharata offered in Rangacharya 1996.
To my knowledge, there are no available, unbroken translations of Rudraas Kvylakra or of either
Udbhaas Kvylakrasagraha or of Prathrendurjas commentary thereon; or of Ruyyakas
commentary on Mammaas Kvyapraka, the Kvyaprakasaketa. Translations of any and all of
these works in English, or another Indian or European language, would be most welcome, and well
needed, additions to the scholarship on Indian aesthetics.
Dwivedi, Rewaprasada, Ed. and Trans.1964. Vyaktiviveka, with Ruyyakas Commentary. Varanasi:
Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series.
This classic of Mahimabhaa, along with Ruyyakas commentary, is available in a competent
Hindi translation. The work merits further study, of course, and James Reich (currently a doctoral
student at Harvard University) is engaged precisely in a reexamination of Ruyyakas oeuvre.
Ingalls, Daniel H. H., Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and M. V. Patwardhan. 1990. The Dhvanyloka of
nandavardhana with the Locana of Abhinavagupta. Harvard Oriental Series 49. Cambridge, MA.:
Harvard University Press.
This is the authoritative translation of this foundational text in aesthetic theory, accompanied by
the famed commentary of the great Kashmiri tantric and polymath, Abhinavagupta.
Jacobi, Hermann. 2010. Zur indischen Poetik und sthetik. Edited by Andreas Pohlus. Classics of
Indology 15. Aachen: Shaker Verlag.
The series of essays and pair of translations reprinted in this volume include Jacobis rendering
(in German) of Ruyyakas Alakrasarvasva. (The Dhvanyloka is the second of the pair of
works translated.)
Jha, Sir Ganganatha. 1967. The Kvyapraka of Mammaa, With English Translation. Varanasi:
Bhratya Vidy Prakshan.
First published in 1918, Jha completed this unbroken rendering of Mammaas famous work (in
ten ullsas) at the age of only eighteen years. This reissued edition offers both Jhas interpretive
translation of the root text (along with the Blabodhin commentary) and the original Sanskrit text
in devangar script.
Rangacharya, Adya, Trans. 1996. Nyastra: English Translation with Critical Notes. Revised Edition.
New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.
This is a generally reliable, and readily available, English rendering of Bharatas famous work,
though a number of other translations are available in a host of European and Indian languages.
Studies
A number of resources treat the major theories and problems associated with the study of
Alakrastra. Some of these materials cover common ground, because the individual contributions of
the various theoreticians on aesthetics have been known, in more or less detail, for some time. So much
is illustrated by the parallel contributions of S. K. De and P. V. Kane, the essence of which one can

capture by reviewing the polished and more succinct contributions of Bronner 2012 and Gerow 1978
(see: *Aesthetic Theory* for the two relevant reviews). What is perhaps needed is renewed critical
study of the major authors and concerns of the subject, as is offered in Pollock 2010, for example. Novel
and innovative approaches to the material, such as those that are happily found in Bronner 2010 and
McCrea 2008, would also be welcomed. Finallyand on another subjecta pair of works here reviewed,
Masson and Patwardhan 1969 and Gnoli 1985, give insight into Abhinavaguptas contributions to
aesthetic theory. The former examines the literary, philosophical, tantric, and other influences on
Abhinavaguptas philosophy of aesthetics, after which it offers numerous translations of excerpts from key
primary sources, most prominent among them the Dhvanylokalocana and the ntarasa section of the
Abhinavabhrat; the latter takes rasa theory as its primary subject and Abhinavas understanding of it in
particular, this in light of key theoretical predecessors (including Dain, Bhaa Lollaa, akuka, Bhaa
Nyaka, and nandavardhana). The bibliography of studies on aesthetics (virtually all of which
substantially address the relevant Kashmiri authors) could of course be expanded greatly, as many
significant scholarly works have been published in this area over the course of more than a century. A
review of the bibliographies in McCrea 2008, Bronner 2010, and Gerow 1978 will give the reader some
indication of where to go in order to access some among these many additional resources.
Bronner, Yigal. 2010. Extreme Poetry: The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration. South Asia
Across the Disciplines Series. New York: Columbia University Press.
This justifiably well-received and groundbreaking study examines the history of bivalent poetry in
South Asia, and many of the Kashmiri authors of works on Alakrastra figure prominently in
the authors narrative.
De, S. K. 1960. History of Sanskrit Poetics. Second Revised Edition. Calcutta: Firma K L Mukhopadhyay.
Originally published in two volumes, this work is similar to Kanes study of the same title in that it
offers an historical survey of the major authors on Alakrastra and explores the major themes
and concerns presented in this area of learning. An indispensible resource for those interested in
the subject.
Gnoli, Raniero. 1985. The Aesthetic Experience According to Abhinavagupta. Chowkhamba Sanskrit
Studies 62. Third Edition. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.
This famed study of Abhinavaguptas views on aesthetics offers a learned introduction, followed
by an edition and translation of a key excerpt of Abhinavas commentary on the Nyastra, the
Abhinavabhrat. Three appendices include a trio of additional translations, one of another
excerpt of the Abhinavabhrat and a pair of selections (absent the original Sanskrit text) from the
Dhvanylokalocana.
Kane, P.V. 1971. History of Sanskrit Poetics. Fourth Edition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
This well-known volume offers a comprehensive overview of Sanskrit aesthetic theory in two
parts. The first part offers a chronological survey of major authors and texts that contributed to
the history of Indian aesthetics; the second part offers a thematic survey of the major concerns of
the subject. This, along with De 1960, is an indispensible resource.
Masson, J. L., and M. V. Patwardhan. 1969. ntarasa and Abhinavaguptas Philosophy of Aesthetics.
Bhandarkar Oriental Series 9. Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
While the authors are not correct in all their judgments about the materials examined in this lovely
volume, primarily because they could not have been aware of the recent, significant progress

scholars have made in mapping Indian intellectual history, this is nevertheless a key contribution
that will be of value to all who are interested in Abhinavas aesthetics.
McCrea, Lawrence. 2008. The Teleology of Poetics in Medieval Kashmir. Harvard Oriental Series 71.
Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.
This work of ten chapters explores the poetic theory of the Kashmiri aesthetician,
nandavardhana, and examines the revisions and additions thereto that were proposed by five
additional authors: Mukulabhaa, Prathrendurja, Kuntaka, Mahimabhaa, and Abhinavagupta.
McCrea argues that these Kashmiri authors owe a theoretical debt to the Mms, which
shaped the new direction that poetic analysis took following nandavardhanas Dhvanyloka.
Pollock, Sheldon. 2010. What was Bhaa Nyaka Saying? The Hermeneutical Transformation of Indian
Aesthetics. In Sheldon Pollock, ed. Epic and Argument in Sanskrit Literary History: Essays in Honor of
Robert P. Goldman. Delhi: Manohar, 143-184.
Pollock argues that Bhaa Nyaka, who probably lived during the reign of akaravarman (883902), was influenced by the Mms. Just as arthavdas, though expressing the concerns of
people from other places and times, were relevant to contemporaneous audiences (according to
the Mms), so, Bhaa Nyaka argued, the rasa felt by a literary character is experienced by
the audience, as well.
stric Works
The demonstrably Kashmiri contributions to Indian technical and philosophical literature are substantial,
but the present bibliography can only partially represent the degree to which Kashmiri authors engaged
stric works and concerns in the Valley from the ninth to twelfth centuries. This is so because many
texts that were written by non-Kashmiris were studied extensively in the Valley, and were implicitly and
explicitly engaged in the various Kashmiri contributions to Indian thought. Such, of course, is the nature
of any highly articulated tradition of learning: the classics perdure, and generate live debate over time and
far from their points of origin. Nevertheless, the identifiably Kashmiri contributions are substantial and
span a range of stric traditions. Grammar was a major concern in the Valley, and the Nyya-Vaieika
was well represented, in particular, by the Naiyyika Bhaa Jayanta, a colossus in the field. The
Brahmins of Kashmir also contributed actively to the history of Dharmastra. Buddhist thought similarly
thrived in the Valley. Finally, aiva philosophy merits particular attention, this because many of the most
influentialor at least most readstudies of Indian philosophy have historically given it insufficient
attention, setting the tradition somewhat to the side in preference for accounts that examine the famed
Six Schools or adaranas of (Hindu) philosophy (or the like), this despite the fact that the aiva
contributions, like virtually all philosophical works, fully integrated themselves into the patterns of debate
that so regularly invoked the most orthodox, or mainstream, of Brahminical, Buddhist and other
philosophical authors and traditions.
The Nyya and Vaieika Schools
The philosophy of the realist Naiyyikas held considerable sway in the Kashmir Valley of the period in
question. Extended arguments dealing with the Nyya are found in the philosophical writings of the
Pratyabhij, for example, these appearing, of course, alongside the writings of the Buddhist
epistemologists; and the longstanding fight between prominent Naiyyika and Buddhist philosophers is
well represented in the extant Kashmiri writings. Bhaa Jayanta (c. 840-900) is the towering Kashmiri
representative of the school, and his Nyyamajar is the paragon of a clear Sanskrit philosophical prose,
one that had a pan-Indian and lasting influence. Bhsarvaja (c. 860-920) also was a Kashmiri, and he
wrote both a brief work titled the Nyyasra and a long treatise, the Nyyabhaa, which is a

commentary on the former that espouses a number of novel and unorthodox positions and apparently
reflects the influence of the authors religious affiliation with the aiva Pupatas. Other prominent
Naiyyikas also are possibly of Kashmiri origin, most notably Vyomaiva (c. 900-960) but also Varadarja
(c. 1100-1150); yet, given that the places where they lived and wrote are disputed more or less spiritedly,
they have been left out of this bibliography. Finally, there is one important commentator on the
Vaieikastra who was likely to have lived and worked in Kashmir: Candrnanda. His dates are
uncertain, but it is not unlikely he wrote at some time around A.D. 900. Isaacson 1995 offers an
assessment of the evidence for his date and his ties to Kashmir, as well as an edition of a part of his
Vaieikastravtti. Kei Kataoka, in turn, has critically edited a number of sections of the Nyyamajar in,
at last count, eight separate published articles, all of which are listed in Graheli 2012. Sanskritists will of
course wish to consult these excellent editions, and cross-reference them with the earlier edition of the
text found in Sukla 1936. A translation of a large portion of the Nyyamajar is offered in Bhattacharyya
1978. Finally, Potter 1977 furnishes a useful overview of the range of Nyya-Vaieika works, ideas, and
authors, including Bhsarvaja (among many others).
Bhattacharyya, Janaki Vallabha, Trans. 1978. Jayanta Bhaas Nyya-majar: The Compendium of
Indian Speculative Logic, Translated into English by Janaki Vallabha Bhattacharyya. Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass
The most up-to-date rendering yet available of this foundational Naiyyika work. Unfortunately,
the translation, which was first published serially in The Calcutta Review, renders only the first
half of the voluminous text.
Graheli, Alessandro. 2012. A Preliminary List and Description of the Nyyamajar Manuscripts. Journal
of Indian Philosophy 40: 317337.
As the title of this short work indicates, the author here assembles an extensive list of editions
and manuscripts of Bhaa Jayantas Nyyamajar. This is a useful resource for Sanskritists, as
much critical work remains to be engaged in the study of this text.
Isaacson, Harunaga. 1995. Materials for the Study of the Vaieika System. Ph.D. Dissertation. Leiden
University.
This dissertation examines the evidence for Candrnandas date, identifies Kashmir as the likely
geographical region where the author lived and wrote, and offers a critical edition of
Candrnandas Vaeikastravtti on the first adhyya and the first hnika of the second adhyya
of the Vaieikastra. The edition should be compared with the editio princeps of Jaina Muni
Jambvijaya, published in 1961.
Potter, Karl. 1977. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2: Nyya-Vaieika. Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass.
A long introduction offers a historical rsum and detailed overview of key authors and ideas.
Following are the customary (for these Encyclopedia volumes) critical summaries of the key texts
and authors of the tradition under study. An indispensible resource that also includes summaries
of the Nyyasra and Nyyabhaa of Bhsarvaja.
Sukla, Surya Narayana. 1936. Nyyamajar. Kashi Sanskrit Series 106. Published by Jaya Krishna Ds
Harids Gupta, The Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, Benares City. Benares: Vidya Vilas Press.
The present is a serviceable edition of the text, which was accessed by Potter, Bhattacharyya,
and Usharbudh Arya in their summary of the work for the Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies.

Buddhist Philosophy
Kashmir figures prominently in the history of Buddhist thought, the Valley being a center of Buddhist
learning from an early period. The Sarvstivda was prevalent there from the time of Aoka, and the
Mahvibh very likely had a Kashmiri provenance. Kumrajva (344-413), the great translator who did
much to bring Buddhism to prominence in China, is also likely to have had close ties to Kashmir; and of
course Chinese intellectual pilgrims, such as Xuanzang (c. 602-664), also visited the Valley and noted the
prominence of Buddhism there. Kashmiri thinkers had a role in bringing Buddhism to Tibet, as well, as is
exemplified by the fact that both Jinamitra (of the 9th century) and Sarvajamitra (end of 8th, beginning of
9th centuries) were Kashmiris. Yet, the greatest contribution to Buddhist thought probably came in the
area of Buddhist epistemology. Vintadeva, of perhaps the first half of the eighth century, spent time in
Kashmir, and Dharmottara is explicitly associated with the Valley by Kalhaa, who places him there
during the reign of Jaypa (r. 773/4-804/5). Arcaa (730-790), too, hailed from the Valley, and
Jnarmitra (975-1025) and akaranandana (c. 940-1030) also lived and wrote in Kashmir. A
somewhat dated but foundational history of these figures and their Kashmiri ties is offered in Naudous
Buddhists of Kamr (reviewed in *General Overviews*; see esp. pp. 122-129). McCrea and Patil 2010
offers a useful philosophical rsum of key ideas. While Dunne 2004 does not deal with Kashmir per se,
it offers a sophisticated treatment of Buddhist epistemology as presented by Dharmakrti, who of course
was of colossal influence on the Kashmiri thinkers in question. Hattori 1968 does the same for Dignga.
Finally, Stcherbatsky 1962 offers something similar, and, while dated, the volume is of foundational
importance to scholarship on the subject.
Dunne, John D. 2004. Foundations of Dharmakrtis Philosophy. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
This volume offers a philosophically and historically sophisticated and detailed account of
Dharmakrtis thought.
Hattori, Masaaki. 1968. Dignga On Perception: Being the Pratyakapariccheda of Dignga's
Pramasamuccaya from the Sanskrit Fragments and the Tibetan Versions, Translated and Annotated.
Harvard Oriental Series 47. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
This landmark study offers exemplary translations of Sanskrit fragments and Tibetan renderings
of the pratyakapariccheda of Digngas Pramasamuccaya. The text under study is the
foundational work of Buddhist epistemology and, while the writings of Dharmakrti (and his
commentators) have a more commanding presence in the Valley, it too had a tremendous, if
mediated, influence there in the period in question.
McCrea, Lawrence J. and Parimal G. Patil. 2010. Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India:
Jnarmitra on Exclusion. New York: Columbia University Press.
Devoted primarily to the writings of Jnarmitra (975-1025), an important Buddhist philosopher
who offers a novel, surprising, and frankly aberrant interpretation of the Buddhist theory of
exclusion (apoha), this volume also includes a concise historical survey of Buddhist
epistemological theory that identifies Dharmottara,(8th century), who lived and worked in Kashmir,
as one who triggered an epistemological revolution in Buddhist thought.
Stcherbatsky, Fedor Ippolitovich. 1962. Buddhist Logic. 2 volumes. New York: Dover Publications.
This foundational study of the Buddhist Epistemologists offers a basis for examining the schools
Kashmiri authors, Dharmottara in particular.
Grammatical Traditions
The study of grammar was an enduring concern in premodern South Asia, and it is clear that the Pinian

tradition held great currency in Kashmir in our period, as it did across the Indian sub-continent. Bharthari
was also tremendously influential, perhaps to a degree not yet fully known, as is argued in Nemec 2011
(reviewed in *The Pratyabhij* ). A number of prominent grammarians were Kashmiris. First, the
famed co-authors of the Kikvtti, Jayditya and Vmana, are sometimes thought to have hailed from
the Valley (the latter is mentioned in the Rjataragi and the former is sometimes identified with late 8thand early 9th-century king Jaypa, in whose employ Vmana worked as a minister). Kaiyaa, too, who is
probably of the 11th or 12th centuries, is said to have been a Kashmiri. He is of course the author of the
Pradpa, a foundational commentary on the Mahbhya of Patajali. Helrja, an author of the late
tenth or eleventh centuries who wrote the Prakrapraka, a key commentary on the Vkyapadya of
Bharthari, is also associated with Kashmir. Finally, Patajali himself (2nd century, B.C.E.) may have been
a Kashmiri as well, if we believe the arguments put forward by Aklujkar in Kaul and Aklujkar 2008.
Kaul, Mrinal and Ashok Aklujkar, Eds. 2008. Linguistic Traditions of Kashmir: Essays in Memory of Pandit
Dinanath Yaksha. New Delhi and Jammu: D.K. Printworld and The Harabhatta Shastri Indological
Research Institute.
Twenty-one essays address various concerns regarding the study of Grammar in Kashmir.
Perhaps most notable is the contribution of Ashok Aklujkar, who in three linked essays speculates
that Patajali was a Kashmiri. Other issues addressed include the influence of vykaraa on
tantric authors, the system of the Ktantra, Udbhaas contributions to vykaraa, and the rad
manuscripts of the Kikvtti.
Shastri, Mangal Deva, Ed. 1931. The gvedaprtikhya with the Commentary of Uvaa, Edited from
Original Manuscripts, with Introduction, Critical and Additional Notes, English Translation of the Text and
Several Appendices. 3 Volumes. Punjab Oriental Series 24. Lahore: M. L. Banarsi Das.
While many scholars came to Kashmir to live and work, some left the Valley for similar reasons.
Uvaa (mid-11th century), for example, is said to have left Kashmir to work in King Bhojas court.
He is most renowned for his commentaries on selected Prtikhyas, perhaps most notably the
gvedaprtikhya, as indicated by the present entry, but also the uklayajurvedaprtikhya.
Works on Dharma
Nearly all Brahmins in Kashmir identified themselves with the Khaka recension of the Black Yajurveda,
probably from an early date. It is here further worth noting that some of the Dharma texts associated with
this tradition probably are of a Kashmiri pedigree. At least this much is suspected by P. V. Kane (in his
monumental History of Dharmastra), who places the origins of the Viudharmastra (c. 100-300 C.E.)
in Kashmir, or the Panjab, on the basis of its reliance on the Khakaghyastra and use of Khaka
mantras. The Dharmastra of Hrta also may have been of a Kashmiri provenance. Closer to our
period, Kane, following Bhler, identifies Medhtithi as a Kashmirian. The author, whose approximate
dates are of the early 9th to mid-11th centuries, is of course well known as an early commentator on the
Mnavadharmastra. Aparrka (fl. c. 1100-1200), while not a Kashmiri, seems to have had his
commentary on the Yjavalkyasmti introduced in the Valley during the reign of Jayasiha (r. 11281149) by an emissary of the Konkan king Aparditya (the evidence for this being mention of such an
encounter in Makhas rkahacarita), and, as Kane notes, the work in question endured as the
standard legal text of Kashmiri pandits to modern times.
Kane, P. V. 1930. History of Dharmastra (Ancient and Medieval Religious and Civil Law). Vol. 1. Pune:
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
The first volume of this massive and historic study of Hindu law offers the relevant evidence for
the Kashmiri provenance of certain Dharmastric texts and authors. Kashmir figures

prominently in the second part of the fifth volume as well, where a history of tantra is offered in an
examination of its significance to the history of Dharmastra.
aiva Philosophy
Tantra is regularlyand appropriatelyassociated with esotericism and a range of ritual, yogic, and other
practices meant to bring the practitioner along the road toward the acquisition of either magical powers
(siddhis) or spiritual emancipation (moka). Yet, tantric authors also made significant contributions to
Indian philosophy: both the authors of the non-dualist Pratyabhij, or Recognition, School, here
represented by scholarly works that treat the writings of Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta, and the authors
of the dualist aiva Siddhnta wrote what should be counted as strictly stric, philosophical works. The
Nyya is a common interlocutor of these authors, though the Buddhist epistemologistsDharmakrti (and
Dharmottara), in particularappear more regularly as their most significant opponents. The works here
reviewed should help to facilitate a much-deserved integration of these authors and their philosophical
ideas into the mainstream study of Indian philosophy, where they properly belong. Thus, Kaul 1938-43
offers the editio princeps of Abhinavaguptas somewhat eclectic but philosophically encyclopedic
varapratyabhijvivtivimarin, the longer of that authors two major philosophical works, which is ripe
for further textual and philosophical investigation. Indeed, the Vivtivimarin has never been edited
critically or translated, apart from the rendering of the occasional excerpted passage, and while the work
is a storehouse of Abhinavas philosophical learning, it wants for a much greater degree of scholarly
attention than it has received to date. Pandey 1954, in turn, furnishes a rendering of the shorter of
Abhinavas two major philosophical works, the varapratyabhijvimarin, and he offers with it a
translation, for the first time, of Utpaladevas varapratyabhijkriks, the root text on which
Abhinavaguptas pair of texts is based (the shorter commenting on the shorter of Utpaladevas two autocommentaries, the varapratyabhijkrikvtti, the latter on the longer of the two, the
varapratyabhijvivti, which is has not survived to the present day outside of a few fragments). Rati
2011 offers a detailed and philosophically rigorous examination of the Vimarin, while Torella 1994
furnishes a rendering of the Kriks and Utpaladevas short auto-commentary thereupon. Finally,
Watson 2006 and Watson, et. al., 2013 do much to bring the philosophical writings of the dualist aiva
Siddhntin, Bhaa Rmakaha, to light. It is hoped, to reiterate, that these scholarly works represent
only the beginning of a sustained effort to draw aiva thought into the mainstream of the study of Indian
philosophy, as much work remains to be done to facilitate as much.
Kaul, Madhusudana, Ed. 1938-43. The varapratyabhijvivtivimarin. Kashmir Series of Texts and
Studies Volumes 60, 62 & 65. Bombay: Niraya Sgara Press.
This scholastic and highly complex work offers Abhinavaguptas most comprehensive account of
Pratyabhij thought, one that he contextualizes in his encyclopedic understanding of a range of
Brahminical and Buddhist schools of thought. The text, while highly philosophical, is not devoid
of rather more theological passages, and since it glosses Utpaladevas lost Vivti, it is often
difficult to decipher.
Pandey, K. C., Ed. and Trans. 1954. Bhskar. An English Translation of the vara Pratyabhij
Vimarin in the Light of the Bhskar with an Outline of the History of aiva Philosophy. 3 vols. Princess
of Wales Saraswati Bhavana Texts 84. Lucknow.
The present rendering of Abhinavaguptas varapratyabhijvimarin, while not infrequently
difficult to followat least for those keen on understanding the precise philosophical issues to
handand while including little in the way of explanatory annotations, is complete and largely
accurate, and it also includes the sub-commentary of Bhskarakaha, an added asset of this
groundbreaking, if imperfect, work.

Rati, Isabelle. 2011. Le Soi et lAutre: Identit difference, et laterite dans la philosophie de la
Pratyabhij. Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture 13. Leiden: Brill.
This lightly revised rendering of the authors Ph.D. dissertation offers a detailed analysis of the
philosophical arguments found in the varapratyabhijvimarin, Abhinavaguptas subcommentary on Utpaladevas short auto-commentary on the varapratyabhijkriks, the
varapratyabhijkrikvtti. Included is a detailed study of the first of the texts four chapters
(adhikras), in which Pratyabhij idealism is developed largely in dialogue with Buddhist
epistemology.
Torella, Raffaele. 1994. The varapratyabhijkrik of Utpaladeva with the Authors Vtti: Critical Edition
and Annotated Translation. Rome: IsMEO.
This is a valuable translation of Utpaladevas foundational work, the varapratyabhijkriks,
along with the authors short auto-commentary, the -Vtti. The authors critical edition and English
translation, which is properly annotated, offers a direct entry into the Pratyabhij by way of the
text that best defines the philosophical positions of the school.
Watson, Alex. 2006. The Selfs Awareness of Itself: Bhaa Rmakahas Arguments Against the
Buddhist Doctrine of No-self. Publications of the De Nobili Research Library, 32. Vienna: De Nobili
Research Library.
Watson offers a close reading and learned analysis of Bhaa Rmakahas
Narevaraparkpraka, a commentary on the Narevarapark of the (probably non-Kashmiri)
Saiddhntika exegete, Sadyojyotis. In particular, he examines Rmakahas arguments against
Buddhist ideas regarding the impermanence of the self or tman. Key Naiyyika, Skhya,
Vaieika, and Bha Mmsaka philosophical formulations are examined, as well.
Watson, Alex, Dominic Goodall and S. L. P. Anjaneya Sarma. 2013. An Enquiry into the Nature of
Liberation: Bhaa Rmakahas Paramokanirsakrikvtti, A Commentary on Sadyojyotis Refutation
of Twenty Conceptions of the Liberated State (moka). Collection Indologie no 122. Pondicherry, Institut
Franais de Pondichry / Ecole franaise dExtrme-Orient.
As the title suggests, this work examines a series of arguments against disparate views of
liberation from a ranging array of opposing philosophical schools. While Sadyojyotis cannot be
shown to be a Kashmiri, his commentator Rmakaha undoubtedly hails from the Valley.
aiva Scriptural Writings
Some four score of scriptural aiva texts among those that were composed in the 5th to 11th centuries are
known to remain extant in the various manuscript collections of South Asia and Europe. Though the
origins of these works are often obscured, a handful of them are certain or nearly certain to have first
emerged in the Kashmir Valley. Others, however, cannot be proven to have such a provenance, even if
their historical influence in Kashmir is certain. With these facts in mind, two significant doctoral
dissertations that examine a pair of tantric works of great historical currency in the Valley, but which may
well have been produced elsewhere, have been excluded. (These are: the dissertation of Shaman Hatley,
who examined the Brahmaymala/Picumata in his 2007 Ph.D. Dissertation; and that of Judit Trzsk,
who examined the Siddhayogevarmata in her Oxford D.Phil. thesis of 1999.) Also left out is the
Tridaamaratantra, the contents of which were reviewed and analyzed in John Nemec, On the
Structure and Contents of the Tridaamaratantra, a Kaula Scriptural Source of the Northern
Transmission (Journal of Hindu Studies 6.3(2013): 297-316), for while the dhyna presented in this work
closely parallels the appearances of a pair of Kashmiri bronzes of the eleventh or twelfth centuries, the

proof of a Kashmiri provenance is otherwise uncertain. Conversely, a pair of works that should be
included in this bibliography is of necessity left out: the Bhatklottara and the (second, third, and fourth
akas of the) Jayadrathaymala are very likely to be Kashmiri products, but no editions, translations, or
extended studies thereof have been published to date, apart from the occasional excerpts embedded in
scholarly works addressing other intellectual concerns. The three entries here reviewed, then, give a
necessarily partial glimpse into the Kashmiri textual tradition of aiva tantric scriptural works. Sanderson
1988 offers a comprehensive survey of the history of aiva scriptural writings, and this rich, if challenging,
article is the place to start for anyone seeking to know the nature of the subject to hand. Sanderson
2004, in turn, examines a key tantric scriptural work that is likely a Kashmiri production, the Netratantra.
Finally, Arraj 1988 offers a useful survey of the Svacchandatantra, which is also very likely to have been a
Kashmiri production; for, after all, Kemarja, Abhinvaguptas premiere disciple, wrote an important
commentary on the work that explicitly sought to overturn dualist, aiva Saiddhntika interpretations
thereof.
Arraj, William James. 1988. The Svacchandatantram: History and Structure of a aiva Scripture. 2
Volumes. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Chicago.
Arraj proposes a Himlayan provenance of this tantra, and the work was centrally important to the
religious life of the Kashmir Valley. Volume one addresses methodological concerns, reviews
Kemarjas commentary, and offers a detailed summary of the contents of the tantra. Volume
two offers translations of five substantial passages of the text that illustrate its compositional
history.
Sanderson, Alexis. 1988. aivism and the Tantric Traditions. In The Worlds Religions: The Religions of
Asia, ed. by S. Sutherland, L. Houlden, P. Clarke, and F. Hardy, 660704. London: Routledge.
This foundational essay offers an historical map of the various textual traditions of the canon of
aiva scriptural writings, one that has needed only minor corrections in the more than twenty-five
years since it was first put into print. This article has served to direct research into the history of
these texts since its publication.
Sanderson, Alexis. 2004. Religion and the State: aiva Officiants in the Territory of the Kings
Brahminical Chaplin. Indo-Iranian Journal 47: 229-300.
The author argues that the Netratantra can be shown to have been produced in Kashmir
sometime between approximately 700 and 850 C.E., probably toward the latter half of this period.
Sanderson further argues that the distinctive feature of the text is that it atypically placed the
tantric aiva officiant in the position of serving as the kings chaplain.
aiva Post-Scriptural Writings
It is not the case that all tantric post-scriptural writings were composed after all the various tantric
scriptural sourcesthe many Tantras, gamas, and Sahitsemerged on the scene. Yet, these works
all claim human authorship and self-consciously reflect, or reflect on, scriptural sources that they
sometimes explicitly and sometimes only obliquely invoke. Kashmir of the ninth to twelfth centuries was
perhaps the preeminent center for the production of such works, and a number of post-scriptural
traditions developed there in this time period. These include: (1) the writings of the dualist aiva
Siddhntins, (2) the traditions of exegesis based in the Klkula, (3) the Krama subgroup of the Klkula
traditions, (4) the Spanda school, (5) the Pratyabhij, and (6) the exegesis based in the Trika. Much has
been written about the Pratyabhij and its most famous trio of authors, Somnanda, Utpaladeva, and
Abhinavagupta. The last of these authors, in turn, is the preeminent representative of the post-scriptural
Trika. The Spanda School, too, has received much attention (thanks primarily to the various contributions

of Mark Dyczkowski). The same can be said for the aiva Siddhnta. Conversely, the state of
scholarship on the Klkula and its Krama subgroup is decidedly in its early stages, as the vast majority of
the relevant surviving works remain unpublished, unedited, understudied, and untranslated. Those
interested in these areas of learning should direct their attention to Sanderson 2007, which not only offers
a detailed account of the Klkula in Kashmir, but also gives a comprehensive and detailed overview of
the gamut of aiva exegetical traditions in the Valley in our period.
Pandey, K.C. [1963] 2000. Abhinavagupta: An Historical and Philosophical Study. 2nd ed. Varanasi:
Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.
This extensive, eponymous work surveys the life, writings, and ideas of this great Kashmiri
polymath, offering a broad view of aiva post-scriptural traditions in the process.
Abhinavaguptas tantric writings are emphasized herein, but his aesthetics are not ignored, and
much of the biographical, philosophical, and historical information here offered has yet to be
surpassed in subsequent scholarly writings.
Sanderson, Alexis. 2007. The aiva Exegesis of Kashmir. In Mlanges tantrique la mmoire dHlne
Brunner. Tantric Studies in Honor of Hlne Brunner, ed. by Dominic Goodall and Andr Padoux, 231
442. Pondicherry: Institut Franais de Pondichry / cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient.
This long essayas substantial as most monographsoffers a comprehensive historical
overview, articulated with a deep attention to philological concerns, of the writings of the Kashmiri
aiva post-scriptural authors. Though it is not written for a general audience, committed students
could use this article to orient themselves in the history of these myriad traditions.
The aiva Siddhnta
The Kashmiri aiva Siddhnta was outlined in some detail in Sanderson 2007: 242-247 (reviewed in
*aiva Post-Scriptural Writings*), and his account largely informs what follows. The record reveals
that much of what is extant of the Kashmiri post-scriptural Siddhnta has come from the hand either of
Bhaa Nryaakaha or of Bhaa Rmakaha (II), his son. Not all of their extant works have come
into print, and others have been lost. Nryaakaha authored a commentary on the Mgendrgama
(which is translated into French in Brunner-Lachaux 1985 and Hulin 1980 and part of which is critically
edited in Bhatt 1962). Rmakaha (c. 950-1000) produced the Srdhatriatiklottaravtti (edited in Bhatt
1979; cf. Goodall 2007), a commentary on the Klottara of 350 verses (this being a text on the basis of
which Nryaakaha composed a now-lost paddhati), a commentary on the first twelve chapters of the
Kiraatantra (for which see Goodall 1998), a commentary on the Matagapramevargama (critically
edited in Bhatt 1977 and Bhatt 1982) and, most notably, a commentary on the Narevarapark of
Sadyojyotis that appears under the title Narevaraparkpraka. (Alex Watson has examined this last
work in some detail in Watson 2006, reviewed in *aiva Philosophy*.) Rmakaha and
Nryaakaha also produced a number of sub-commentaries on the exegetical works of Sadyojyotis
that gloss a pair of Saiddhntika scriptures, the Rauravastrasagraha and the
Svyambhuvastrasagraha. The scholarship on these works remains incomplete, however. In addition
to the contributions of these authors, one can also mention a pair of additional works: the unpublished
Bhvacmai, a commentary on an unpublished Pratihtantra titled the Mayasagraha, which was
composed by Bhaa Vidykaha, Rmakahas student; and a commentary on the Kiraatantra by one
Bhtikaha (as was first noted by Sanderson). Finally, Somaabhu and his eponymous paddhati are
not here included, this in deference to the arguments offered in Sanderson 2007 that suggest he was
unlikely to have been a Kashmiri and that, even if he were, his Somaambhupaddhati teaches a ritual
system that is not characteristic of the Kashmiri Siddhnta.

Bhatt, N.R., Ed. 1962. Mgendrgama: Kriypda et Carypda: avec le commentaire de BhattaNryanakantha. Publications de l'Institut franais d'indologie, no. 23. Pondichry: Institut franais
d'indologie.
The Mgendrgamas Kriy- and Cary-pdas are here edited, preceded by a brief introduction in
French and Sanskrit. Indexes alphabetically record each quarter-verse of the text, as well as
those quoted in the commentary. A glossary of terms is appended, and a series of plates
illustrate the relevant ritual implements and mudrs. This is the foundational edition of this work.
Bhatt, N.R., Ed. 1977. Matagapramevargama: Vidypda: avec le commentaire de Bhaa
Rmakaha. Publications de l'Institut franais d'indologie. no. 56. Pondichry: Institut franais
d'indologie.
This is the authoritative edition of the Vidypda of the Matagapramevargama. The
remaining three pdas are edited and published in Bhatt 1982. .
Bhatt, N.R., Ed. 1979. Srdhatriatiklottargama: avec le commentaire de Bhaa Rmakaha.
Publications de l'Institut franais d'indologie, no. 61. Pondichry: Institut franais d'indologie.
The Klottara appears in all the lists of the twenty-eight principal Saiddhntika scriptures and is
regularly counted as the twenty-eighth among them. It appears in many recensions and is known
by various names, such as the Vtulgama. Herein is a complete edition of the text and
commentary, coupled with the relevant front- and back-matter. An indispensible volume for the
study of the Siddhnta.
Bhatt, N.R., Ed. 1982. Matagapramevargama: Kriypda, Yogapda, et Carypda: Avec le
commentaire de Bhaa Rmakaha. Publications de l Institut franais d'indologie no. 65. Pondichry:
Institut franais d'indologie.
This volume, together with Bhatt 1977, offers a complete and authoritative edition of the
Matagapramevargama in its four quarters (pdas), each prefaced with extended
introductions in French and Sanskrit, pda indexes, and other useful back-matter. Rmakahas
commentary extends across the entire Vidypda and through the eleventh paala of the
Kriypda. No commentary on the Yoga- and Cary-pdas survives.
Brunner-Lachaux, Hlne, Trans. 1985. Mgendrgama: section des rites et section du comportement,
avec la vtti de Bhaanryaakaha; traduction, introduction, et notes. Series: Publications de l'Institut
franais d'indologie, no 69. Pondichery: Institut franais d'indologie.
A short introduction precedes an unbroken French translation of the kriy and cary sections of
the Mgendrgama in this copiously annotated rendering that includes the commentary of Bhaa
Nryaakaha. This is an authoritative translation of these sections of this early Saiddhntika
gama.
Goodall, Dominic. 1998. Bhaa Rmakahas Commentary on the Kiraatantra. Volume I. Chapters 1-6.
Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. Pondicherry: Institut Franais dIndologie.
While the provenance of this early scriptural work of the aiva Siddhnta is uncertain, the
commentator, Bhaa Rmakaha II (fl. C. 950-1000), was undoubtedly a Kashmiri. The first six
(of twelve) chapters of his commentary are included in this volume, along with a meticulously
prepared critical edition and annotated translation of both the tantra and commentary. An
outstanding resource.

Goodall, Dominic. 2007. A First Edition of the [atika-]Klajna, the Shortest of the Non-eclectic
Recensions of the Klottara. In Dominic Goodall and Andr Padoux, Eds. Mlanges tantrique
la mmoire dHlne Brunner. Tantric Studies in Honor of Hlne Brunner. Pondicherry: Institut
Franais de Pondichry / cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient. 125-166.
This essay offers an edition of one of the shortest recensions of the Klottara, of which
Bhatt was not aware at the time of the publication of his Srdhatriatiklottargama: avec
le commentaire de Bhaa Rmakaha.
Hulin, Michel. 1980. Mgendrgama: sections de la doctrine et du yoga: avec la vtti de
Bhaanryaakaa et la Dpik d'Aghoraivcrya / traduction, introduction, et notes Pondichry:
Institut franais d'indologie.
Herein is presented an unbroken French translation of the jna and yoga pdas of the
Mgendrgama, along with both Nryaakahas commentary and the sub-commentary by
Aghoraiva, the famed South Indian writer of approximately the mid-twelfth century. This is an
authoritative rendering of the text and an indispensible resource for the study of the Siddhnta.
The Spanda School
The doctrine of vibration is said to be represented primarily by a pair of works, the ivastras and the
Spandakriks. The former is said to have been discovered by Vasugupta on Mt. Mahdeva in Kashmir
(where the stras were inscribed on a rock, by one account); the latter is said to interpret the ideas of this
work, though the authorship is variously attributed to Vasugupta (by Kemarja) or to Bhaar Kallaa,
his student (by Bhaa Bhskara and Bhgavatotpala, a.k.a. Utpala Vaiava). The tradition counts both
as equally representative of the spanda doctrinethe view that iva is in essence a pulsating
consciousnesseven if the ivastras nowhere make mention of such vibration or spanda. It is unclear
the degree to which earlier esoteric, tantric works influenced these texts, because many of the possibly
relevant goddess-centered works have been lost. What is certain is that these texts spawned a cottage
industry of commentary and exegesis, as the various translations found in Dyczkowski 1992 exemplify,
and they have commanded a dedicated following even down to the present day. The materials here
reviewed offer a rather comprehensive scholarly treatment of the subject. Dyczkowski 1987 furnishes a
synchronic and thematic overview of the relevant texts and traditions. Dyczkowski 1992 delivers a
readable and reliable rendering of the Spandakriks, and the same author translates the stras in his
The Aphorisms of iva. The latter may be compared with the French rendering found in Silburn 1980,
which also includes Kemarjas Vimarin.
Dyczkowski, Mark. 1987. The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices of
Kashmir Shaivism. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
This is the published rendering of the authors Ph.D. dissertation, which thoroughly introduces the
aiva post-scriptural Spanda school. The Krama is also discussed in detail. Dyczkowski
accesses a great range of published and often untranslated Sanskrit texts herein, furnishing a
sophisticated survey of the key texts and traditions. This is a landmark study of the Spanda and
related traditions.
Dyczkowski, Mark, Trans. 1992. The Stanzas on Vibration: The Spandakrik with Four Commentaries.
Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
This large volume offers accurate, fluent translations of this key post-scriptural work, along with
the key commentaries.

Dyczkowski, Mark, Trans. 1992. The Aphorisms of iva: The ivastras with Bhskaras Commentary,
the Vrttika. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
This is the authoritative translation of the ivastras, one of the pair (along with the
Spandakriks) of foundational texts of the Spanda school. The volume includes Bhskaras
commentary on the stras as well, the Vrttika.
Silburn, Lilian. 1980. ivastra et Vimarin de Kemarja. (tudes sur le ivasme du Cachemire, cole
Spanda.) Traduction et introduction. Publications de l'Institut de Civilisation Indienne, Srie in-80, Fasc.
47. Paris: Institut de Civilisation Indienne.
Though criticized for containing interpretive errors and for, pace Alexis Sanderson, the authors
homiletic method, which is careless of history, at least this book offers a readable rendering of
Kemarjas important commentary on this foundational Spanda work.
The Pratyabhij
The Pratyabhij or Recognition school is the philosophical tradition most closely associated with what
has commonly been labeled Kashmiri aivism. The core of this tradition is found in the writings of
Utpaladeva, principally his varapratyabhijkriks, along with his short auto-commentary, the -Vtti,
and long auto-commentary, the -Vivti. Torella 1994 (reviewed in *aiva Philosophy*) offers a critical
edition and translation of the first two of these works; the third is lost, excepting for some fragments
discovered by Torella himself. Abhinavagupta composed, late in his career, a pair of sub-commentaries,
the varapratyabhijvimarin and the varapratyabhijvivtivimarin, glossing the shorter and longer
auto-commentaries, respectively. While these works, at least somewhat arbitrarily, were classed under
the rubric of aiva Philosophy, herein are reviewed a series of works that examine what we could (again
somewhat arbitrarily) describe as rather more theological dimensions of the tradition. Lawrence 1999
engages the thought of the two towering figures just mentioned, while Nemec 2011 examines the first
work of the Pratyabhij, the ivadi of Somnanda, Utpaladevas teacher. Finally, Singh 1977 renders
in translation, with notes, a primer in the subject that was penned by Abhinavas premiere disciple,
Kemarja.
Lawrence, David Peter. 1999. Rediscovering God with Transcendental Argument: A Contemporary
Interpretation of Monistic Kashmiri aiva Philosophy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
This book offers a constructive theological engagement with Utpaladevas and Abhinavaguptas
contributions to Pratyabhij philosophy. Informed by the writings of Western theorists and
theologians, Lawrence suggests that the Pratyabhij offers a relevant position in contemporary
discourse, one that can establish the reality of the divine in the face of relativist and
deconstructionist philosophical positions.
Nemec, John. 2011. The Ubiquitous iva: Somnandas ivadi and His Tantric Interlocutors. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Nemec offers a critical edition, annotated translation, and critical study of the ivadi, the
magnum opus of Somnanda, the founding author of the Pratyabhij (the philosophical school
most closely associated with Kashmiri Shaivism).
Singh, Jaydev. Trans. 1977. Pratyabhijhdayam: Sanskrit Text with English Translation, Notes, and
Introduction. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Kemarja, Abhinavaguptas preeminent disciple, wrote this short but difficult work with the
intention that it serve as a primer in Pratyabhij thought. Singh offers extensive commentary to
the text, and the volume thus offers something of a suitable gateway to the subject.

Abhinavaguptas Trika-Based Exegesis

The many works of this great polymath are often divided among three categories, devoted to his
philosophical, aesthetic, and tantric writings, respectively. It is the last of these that is (partially) examined
here. Any such cataloging of his writings is necessity reductive, as his deeply scholastic and habitually
synthetic productions often crossed boundaries and fused intellectual horizons, whether implicitly or
explicitly. And the category of tantric writings is overly vague, because Abhinavagupta was influenced
by and exerted influence on a range of distinguishable tantric traditions, including notably the Trika and
the Krama, as well, of course, as the Pratyabhij, in the lineage of which he stands, the line extending
from Somnanda to Utpaladeva and, thorough Lakmaagupta, to Abhinavagupta himself. Abhinavas
monumental Tantrloka, often counted as his magnum opus, offers an encyclopedic account of tantric
ideas, rites, and practices. Dyczkowski has announced his intention to publish an unbroken English
rendering of the entire work, which occupies no fewer than twelve volumes of the Kashmir Series of Texts
and Studies, but none of his promised rendering is yet in print. A French translation of the first five
chapters was printed in Silburn and Padoux 1998, and a complete Italian translation (Gnoli 1999) is
readily available. The late Hemen Chakravarty renders in English Abhinavaguptas Tantrasra, which is
meant to offer a condensed version of the Tantrloka. Elsewhere, Biernacki 1999 examines and
translates a section of Abhinavas varapratyabhijvivtivimarin that could be described as a rather
more tantric division of this elsewhere more philosophically oriented work. Singh 1988, in turn, renders
Abhinavaguptas commentary on a key short Trika work, while Bansat-Boudon and Tripathi 2011 offer a
subtle and sophisticated study and translation of Abhinavas propaedeutic Paramrthasra. Hanneder
treats Abhinavaguptas key commentary on the Mlinvijayottaratantra, one of a trio of Trika scriptural
sourcesthe famed aardha or half of sixthat was privileged by Abhinavagupta and the one for
which his Tantrloka is said to stand as a paddhati, or technical ritual manual. Many other items could be
added to this list, as a perusal of Pandeys now somewhat dated but seminal survey will attest (Pandey
[1963] 2000); yet, these works offer a glimpse of the core of Abhinavas tantric writings.
Bansat-Boudon, Lyne and Kamaleshadatta Tripathi. 2011. An Introduction to Tantric Philosophy: The
Paramrthasra of Abhinavagupta with the Commentary of Yogarja. Routledge Studies in Tantric
Traditions. London and New York: Routledge Press.
Abhinava explicitly presented his text as a rewriting of dieas Paramrthasra (6th-7th
centuries), which itself synthesized Skhya ideas with a form of pre-akara Vednta halfway
between the dvaitdvaitavda of Bhartprapaca and the advaitavda of Gauapda. A
copiously annotated English translation of Abhinavaguptas text and the commentary of Yogarja
(late 11th century), himself a disciple of Kemarja, accompanies a learned introduction.
Birenacki, Loriliai. 1999. Taboo and Orthodoxy: Making Tantra Respectable in 11th- Century Kashmir.
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Biernacki makes available for the first time a readable and reliable translation of the
gamdhikra section of Abhinavaguptas varapratyabhijvivtivimarin, his long
subcommentary on the varapratyabhijkriks, which glosses the svarapratyabhijvivti, the
long auto-commentary of Utpaladeva on his own Kriks. It also includes a study of
transgression and of samvea, or ritually induced trance, in the Pratyabhij.
Chakravarty, H. N. 2012. Tantrasra of Abhinavagupta. Edited by Boris Marjanovic. Portland, OR: Rudra
Press.
The twenty-two chapters of Abhinavas Tantrasra are here rendered in English, preceded by an
Introduction that summarizes the contents of the text. Limited notes further explain various

details of the work. This is a useful and readable rendering of the authors short exposition of the
various matters addressed in Abhinavaguptas encyclopedic account of tantric scripture and
practice, the Tantrloka.
Gnoli, Raniero, Trans. 1999. Abhinavagupta: Luce dei Tantra: Tantrloka. 2nd ed. Biblioteca Orientale.
Milan: Adelphi.
Written in an elegant if highly formal (and difficult) Italian, this remains the single unbroken
translation of the Tantrloka in any Western language, though Mark Dyczkowski (Personal
Communication, Benares, March 2008) has largely prepared a complete English rendering and
has expressed a wish to publish it in the coming few years.
Hanneder, Jrgen. 1999. Abhinavaguptas Philosophy of Revelation: Mlinlokavrttika I, 1-399.
Groningen: Egbert Forsten.
This volume includes a concise introduction to a critical edition and translation of a section of
Abhinavaguptas verse commentary on the Mlinvijayottaratantra that deals with the authority
and hierarchy of the aiva tantric scriptures. A transcription of a fragment of the now lost
rkah, a work that can be shown to have influenced Abhinavaguptas account of scripture, is
also included.
Silburn, Lilian and Andr Padoux. 1998. La lumire sur les tantras: Chapitres 1 5 du Tantrloka.
Publications de l'Institut de civilisation indienne. Srie in-8o ; fasc. 66. Paris: Collge de France,
Dpositaire exclusif Edition-diffusion de Boccard.
As the title suggests, the present volume includes an unbroken translation of the first five
chapters of Abhinavaguptas encyclopedic Tantrloka. No further translations of the works
remaining chapters are expected, however.
Singh, Jaydev, Ed. and Trans. 1988. The Partriikvivaraa of Abhinavagupta. Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass.
Offering a complete translation of this key work, this volume notably includes Abhinavaguptas
quotations of Somnandas lost Partriikvivti, which can be said to be the earliest Trika postscriptural work.
Vasudeva, Somadeva. 2004. The Yoga of the Mlinvijayottaratantra: Chapters 1-4, 7, 12-17. Collection
Indologie 97. Pondichry: Institut Franais de Pondichry & cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient.
This book includes a critical edition of eleven chapters of the Mlinvijayottaratantra, accompanied
by a lengthy study of the theory and practice of yoga represented therein. It is particularly strong
at identifying divergences between the tantra and the interpretations of it offered by
Abhinavagupta. A copiously annotated work, impressively far-reaching in tracing the provenance
and legacies of a range of yogic practices addressed nowhere else by modern scholarship.
The Pacartra & Other Vaiava W ritings
Though the kings of the Kashmiri Krkoa dynasty (c. 625-855/6) were Vaiavas, and while the
Pacartra was clearly present in Kashmir from an early date, relatively few Vaiava works can be
definitively associated with the Valley. The supposed Kashmiri provenance of several scriptural works
has been challenged in Sanderson 2001, for example. (Schrader [1916] 1973, contra Sanderson,
suggests that the Ahirbudhnyasahit is a Kashmiri work, however.) The key challenge in locating and
dating these works lies with the fact that the Pcartrikas did not produce many post-scriptural writings
until a very late date, with the notable exception of the Spandapradpik of a Kashmiri named

Bhgavatotpala, a.k.a. Utpala Vaiava, an unbroken English translation of which may be found in
Dyczkowskis The Stanzas on Vibration (reviewed in *The Spanda School*). Another post-scriptural
work that must be of a Kashmiri origin is the Savitpraka, composed by one Vmanadatta. This is
likely a product of the tenth century. An edition of this work may be found in Dyczkowski 1990, and
Torella 1994 examines its reception in Sanskrit literary sources. As for other scriptural writings,
Sandersons The aiva Age (reviewd in *The Haracaritacintmai of Jayadratha*) gives a detailed
account of the aiva influences on several key early Pcartrika sources, including the Jaykhya-,
Jayottara-, and Ssvata-sahits, which Sanderson dates to after the ninth century. These works may
well have had Kashmiri origins. Similar debts to aiva sources can be identified in the Paukara,
Sanderson further argues, though he also identifies possible Pcartrika influences on the aiva
Spanda School. Elsewhere, Inden 2000 explores in detail the construction and purpose of another
Kashmiri revelation, the Viudharmottarapura, a local Kashmiri work that he suggests may be dated
not merely to the period of Krkoa rule, as Indologists had argued before him, but may also be
associated with the Vaiava Krkoa dynasty and the Krkoa king Candrpa (who reigned c. 712/13720/1) in particular. (His title, Vajrditya, Inden argues, tantalizingly echoes the name of one Vajra, the
protagonist king described in the text itself.) As for so many of the other extant Pcartrika works, they
are of necessity excluded from this survey, because they clearly first emerged in South India and not in
the Valley of Kashmir.
Dyczkowski, Mark S. G. 1990. The Savitpraka by Vmanadatta. Varanasi: Ratna Printing Works.
This is a useful edition of this fascinating tenth-century Vaava work, which articulates a
monistic philosophical position that shows a deep debt to the aiva Pratyabhij.
Inden, Ronald. 2000. Imperial Puras: Kashmir as Vaiava Center of the World. In Querying the
Medieval: Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia, Edited by Ronald Inden, Jonathan Waters,
and Daud Ali. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 29-98.
This essay examines the composition and contents of the Viudharmottarapura (VDhP),
arguing that it was composed in pursuit of a political agenda and in association with the Krkoa
king Candrpa. Inden further argues that the VDhP sutures the Vedas and other scriptures to
itself in developing a scale of [authoritative] texts at the head of which stands the pura itself.
Sanderson. Alexis. 2001. History Through Textual Criticism in the Study of aivism, the Pacartra, and
the Buddhist Yogintantras. In Les Sources et le temps. Sources and Time: A Colloquium, Pondicherry,
1113 January 1997, Edited by Franois Grimal. Publications du dpartement dIndologie 91.
Pondicherry: Institut Franais de Pondichry/cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient, 147.
This article executes precisely the agenda indicated by its title. It is here that Sanderson argues
for a South Indian provenance for two key Pcartrika scriptural sources, the Lakmtantra and
the Ahirbudhnyasahit, this despite a contrary assessment offered in Schrader 1973.
Schrader, F. Otto. [1916] 1973. Introduction to the Pcartra and the Ahirbudhnyasahit. Second
Edition. Madras: The Adyar Library and Research Center.
Schrader offers a thoroughgoing introduction to the texts and ideas of the Pacartra, and also
gives a detailed report on the nature and contents of the Ahirbudhnyasahit. He argues for a
Kashmiri origin for the work, a view contradicted by Sanderson 2001.
Torella, Raffaele. 1994. On Vmanadatta. In Pandit N. R. Bhatt Felicitation Volume, edited by P.-S.
Filliozat, S. P. Narang, and C. P. Bhatta. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, pp. 481-498.
Torella here outlines the reception of the Savitpraka in some detail, noting the fact that it is

quoted for the most part in aiva post-scriptural works, with the notable exception of the
Spandapradpik.
Buddhists in Kashmir
A number of historical works written by or about Tibetans in India offer some account of the Kashmir
Valley of the ninth to twelfth centuries. Naudou studied these works carefully in preparing his Buddhists
of Kamr (reviewed in *General Overviews*), though scholars will themselves wish to examine them
directly. They offer much in the way of contextual information on the links of Tibet to Kashmir, the
authorship of Buddhist works and translations from the Sanskrit to Tibetan of such works, and on the
kings of Kashmir and other nearby kingdoms. Four works, in particular, should be consulted on the
subject. Roerich 2007 offers an unbroken translation of the famed Blue Annals, which record extended
descriptions of the travels of Tibetans to Kashmir. Francke 1914-1926 similarly gives access to the
chronicles of Ladakh, in which Kashmir is prominently featured. Petech 1939, in turn, offers a study of
the same. Finally, Tranthas famed history of Indian Buddhism is translated into English in Chimpa and
Chattopadhyaya [1970] 2010.
G. N. Roerich, Ed. and Trans. 2007. The Blue Annals (Two parts in One Volume). Second Edition. New
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
This work of the Tibetan chronicler Gos lo-tsa-ba-gZon-nu dpal (1392-1481) includes extended
descriptions of Tibetan travelers to Kashmir. One of the frequently accessed primary source
works, the translation of Roerich, first printed in 1949, remains the standard rendering of the text.
Francke, August Hermann. 1914-1926. Antiquities of Indian Tibet. 2 Volumes. New Imperial Series.
Calcutta, Archaeological Survey of India.
The first of these two volumes offers a first-person account of the authors travels through the
Spiti Valley and into Ladakh, furnishing detailed accounts of the peoples and places encountered,
accompanied by scores of plates and a detailed map. The second volume offers a full edition
and translation of the Tibetan text of the chronicles of Ladakh (La-dvags-rgyal-rabs), along with
renderings of a series of additional, minor chronicles. Kashmir figures prominently in many of
these sources.
Petech, L. 1939. A Study on the Chronicles of Ladakh. Calcutta: Calcutta Oriental Press.
Composed (apart from later additions) in the early seventeenth century, the Chronicles offer a
history of central Tibet in their first two sections and of Ladakh in the third. Petech associates this
last section with the Vaval literature of the various Himalayan hill states. A useful resource
for the study of the links between Tibet and the Kashmir Valley.
Chimpa, Lama and Alaka Chattopadhyaya, Trans. [1970] 2010 Tranthas History of Buddhism in India.
Edited by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya. Second Edition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
This volume offers an unbroken and clear rendering of Tranthas famed history in forty-four
chapters, which was first composed in the early seventeenth century. It is preceded by a German
translation (of Anton Schiefner) and a Russian translation (of V. P. Vasilev of 1869) and is based
on Schiefners 1868 edition of the text. Kashmir figures prominently in the work.
The Emergence of Islam in Kashmir
In the centuries following the period placed under study in this bibliographic essay, Islam
emerged as a major cultural and political influence in the Valley, and Kashmir was ruled by Muslim kings
for nearly five centuries, beginning in 1339 with the reign of Shah Mir and until the annexation of the

Valley into the Sikh Empire by Ranjit Singh in 1819. Moreover, while it is true that the Valley today is a
well-known locus of Hindu-Muslim conflict, such communal tensions are rather deeply linked to the
political conundrum created in the process of decolonization and the partition of India; and, to the
contrary, Kashmir was host to a certain cross-pollination of religious traditions after the historical period
examined in this bibliographic essay (though not without attenuating cross-currents and conflict). Thus,
for example, the fourteenth-century Kashmiri Shaiva saint, Lall, a.k.a. Lal Ded, Lallevar, etc., wrote
mystical poems in Kashmiri that had a deep influence on a contemporaneous Sufi saint, Sheikh Noor-uddin Wali, who was a founding figure in the Kashmiri Rishi Sufi order, which helped to shape a uniquely
Kashmiri identity. The items here reviewed cannot account fully for either the history of Islam in Kashmir
or the question of Kashmirs place in the contemporary states of India and/or Pakistan; for, both subjects
merit dedicated bibliographic essays in their own rights. What is offered, instead, are mere pointers,
indicators of where readers could first turn in examining such matters. More contemporary concerns
regarding Kashmir, and its place in subcontinental geopolitics, are addressed (directly and indirectly) in a
trio of selected works: Zutshi 2004 examines the emergence of Kashmiriyat from its pre-colonial roots
through to a post-Independence India; Rai 2004 examines the political, cultural and religious dimensions
of Dogra rule in the Valley from the time of Ranjit Singh to Indian Independence; and Bose 2003 explores
the current (post-Independence) conflict over Kashmir. Closer to the period examined in this
bibliographic essay, selections of Lalls poems may be found translated in Grierson and Barnett [1920]
2013. Odin 2013, in turn, explores Lalls influence on Noor-ud-din and his own verses. Next, the
emergence of Islam in the Valley is surveyed in Andr Winks famed Al-Hind, and, finally, Sachau [1879]
1983 gives access to Al-Birunis (973-1048) sprawling study of Indian culture and society, which furnishes
the occasional, and sometimes not insignificant, reference to the Valley.
Bose, Sumantra. 2003. Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University
Press.
This volume offers an even-handed survey of the ongoing conflict over Kashmir and proposes
possible avenues to a fruitful resolution to it.
Grierson, Sir George and Lionel D. Barnett, Eds. and Trans. [1920] 2013. Lall-vkyni: The Wise
Sayings of Lal Dd, A Mystic Poetess of Ancient Kashmr. Introduction and Translitrator (sic) by Prof.
Shafi Shauq. Srinagar: Jay Kay Books.
This reprint of the classic study of Grierson and Barnett includes a new introduction and
transliterations (in Kashmiri) of the selected poems here included and rendered in English.
Odin, Jaishree K. 2013. Lall to Nruddn: Rish-Sufi Poetry of Kashmir. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Noor-ud-din (1378-1439) is oft considered Lalls spiritual heir, and he founded the Rishi Sufi
order in Kashmir. This volume, with an author favorable to the sort of religious syncretism and
communal harmony she finds in the tradition under study, explores link between the two,
primarily through a study of Noor-ud-din himself.
Rai, Madhu. 2004. Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
This book explores the establishment of Dogra rule in Kashmir and the various efforts to support
and legitimize the same from the time of Ranjit Singh and through to Indian Independence.
Sachau, Edward, Ed. and Trans. [1879] 1993. Alberuni's India: An Account of the Religion, Philosophy,
Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India about A.D. 1030.
New Delhi: Oriental Reprint: Distributed by Munshiram Manoharlal.

An unbroken rendering of Al-Birunis Al-Hind is contained in this single-volume reprint of

the two-volume translation. An indispensible resource giving access to what is often
counted as the first work of Indology.
Wink, Andr. 1990-2004. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Three Volumes. Leiden and
New York: E.J. Brill.
These volumes explore the emergence of Islam in South Asia and survey the entire history of
Islam in Kashmir from its prehistory in the seventh and eighth centuries through to circa 1500, the
eve of the Mughal Empire.
Zutshi, Chitralekha. 2004. Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir.
New York: Oxford University Press.
This instructive volume explores the pre-colonial history of Kashmir in an effort to trace the
development of Kashmiriyat from that time to the colonial period and through to the advent of
Indian independence. A valuable and insightful study.