History at the end of history: Śrīvara’s Jainataraṅgiṇī

This article focuses on the relationship between ÅšrÄ«vara’s fifteenth century Jainataraá¹…giṇī and Kalhaṇa’s twelfth century RÄ jataraá¹…giṇī . Writing in the court of Sultan Zayn ul-‘ĀbidÄ«n, ÅšrÄ«vara relies on Kalhaṇa’s work as the literary and theoretical model for the Jainataraá¹…giṇī, but proceeds to adapt the form to reflect needs specific to a sort of biography of Zayn. I show that ÅšrÄ«vara carefully orders and rearranges the events of the Sultan’s life in order to create a narrative that largely follows the aesthetic and moral expectations articulated in Kalhaṇa’s earlier RÄ jataraá¹…giṇī . Yet despite Åšrivara’s attempts to make his own work philosophically conformable to that of his predecessor, the historiographical background implicit in the Jainataraá¹…giṇī shows subtle shifts in conceptions of royal representation and the agency of fate. I argue that these shifts provide important clues to understand the specific moment in Kashmiri political and literary history made possible by a unique relationship between patron and poet. ÅšrÄ«vara’s Jainataraá¹…giṇī shows the elastic possibilities of the RÄ jataraá¹…giṇī form as it operates in the vastly changed political and social circumstances of Sultanate Kashmir.