History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s2.1

v1.c14.s2.1

The political condition of Kashmir was not very different from that of the rest of India but there are certain peculiarities which appear from the Rājatarangiṇī and which are worth noticing separately. It is to be pitied that no inscriptions or copperplate grants have been found in Kashmir to assist us in this work, notwithstanding the fact that numerous temples were built and Agrahāras to Brahmins given by almost every king and queen and minister. Invaluable contemporaneous records are thus not available. But the Rājatarangiṇī itself is based on many previous histories and the author says he has consulted grants and inscriptions also, as he could probably very easily do, being a government officer himself. His work, therefore, as we have before observed, is reliable to a great extent from the Karkota dynasty onwards i. e. during our period and we give below such information as can be gathered from it relating to the form of goverment in Kashmir.