Jonaraja

Jonaraja (died AD 1459) was a Kashmiri historian and Sanskrit poet. His Dvitīyā Rājataraṅginī is a continuation of Kalhana's Rājataraṅginī and brings the chronicle of the kings of Kashmir down to the time of the author's patron Zain-ul-Abidin (r. 1418–1419 and 1420–1470). Jonaraja, however, could not complete the history of the patron as he died in the 35th regnal year. His pupil, Śrīvara continued the history and his work, the Tritīyā Rājataraṅginī, covers the period 1459–1486. Quotes Rajatarangini The medieval history book Jonarāja, by Rājataraṅgiṇī (also called Jonarāja Rājataraṅgiṇī), a continuation of Kalhaṇa’s Rājataraṅgiṇī, composed c. 1459 CE in Kashmir during the reign of Sultan Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn. When the violence caused by the Rakshasa Dalcha ceased, the son found not his father, nor the father his son, nor did brothers meet their brothers. Kashmira became almost like a region before the creation, a vast field with few men, without food, and full of grass. Dalcha took away the strong men from the country, and Rinchana established his supremacy there ; when darkness covers the earth, unchaste women find it to their advantage. pp. 17-18 a graphic picture of Kashmir marauded by Zul Qadar Khan's army. Variant: Kashmir presented pitiful spectacle. Father sundered from his son wailed and moaned. Brother got separated from his brother, never to meet again.... depopulated, uncultivated grainless and gramineous, the country of Kashmir offered, as it were, the scenario of primal chaos" . It was perhaps owing to the sins of the subjects that the king had a fondness for the Yavanas, even as a boy has a fondness for mud. Many Yavanas left other sovereigns and took shelter under this king who was renowned for charity, even as bees leave the flowers and settle on elephants. As the bright moon is among the stars, so was Mahammada of Mera country among these Yavanas; and although be was a boy, he became their chief by learning. The king waited on him daily, humble as a servant, and like a student he daily took his lessons from him. He placed Mahammada before him, and was attentive to him like a slave. As the wind destroys the trees, and the locusts the shali crop, so did the Yavanas destroy the usages of Kashmira. Attracted by the gifts and honors which the king bestowed, and by his kindness, the mlechchhas entered Kashmira, even as locusts enter a good field of corn... 57-58 The kingdom of Kashmira was polluted by the evil practices of the mlechchhas, and the Brahmanas, the mantras, and the gods relinquished their power. The gods who used to make the glory of their prowess manifest, even as fire-flies manifest their light, now hid their glory on account of the country’s sin. When the gods withdrew their glory, their images became mere stones, and the mantras, mere letters... Suhabhatta who disregarded the acts enjoined by the Vedas, and was instructed by the mlechchhas, instigated the king to break down the images of gods. The good fortune of the subjects left them, and so the king forgot his kingly duties and took a delight, day and night, in breaking images... He broke the images of Marttanda, Vishaya, Ishana, Chakrabhrit, and Tripureshvara; but what can be said of the evil that came on him by the breaking of the Shesha?... When Sureshvari, Varaha, and others were broken, the world trembled, as if through fear, but not so the mind of the wicked king. There was no city, no town, no village, no wood, where Suha the Turushka left the temples of gods unbroken. Of the images which once had existed, the name alone was left, and Suhabhatta then felt the satisfaction which one feels on recovering from illness. Suhabhatta with the leaders of the army tried to destroy the caste of the people ; it was like a boy eating the unwholesome food. The Brahmanas declared that they would die if they lost their caste, and Suhabhatta subjected them to a heavy fine because they held to their caste. 59-60 quoted in The History and Culture of the Indian People Volume 6: The Delhi Sultanate [1300-1526] , in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history. 51-55 quoted in Sita Ram Goel: The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India. Variant: He broke the images of Martanda, Vishaya, Isana, Chakravarati and Tripuresvara… The hawk kills other birds, the lion destroys other animals, the Vajra-jewel pierces other jewels, and the brilliant sun throws about the planets like flowers, and thus destruction seems ever to be caused in this world by one’s own people. Though the king Shrishikandhara was often instigated by Suha to persecute the twice-born, he, whose purpose was tempered by kindness, fixed with some difficulty, a limit to the advance of the great sea of the Yavanas. But Suha passed the limit by levying fines on the twice-born. As the night prevents people from seeing any thing but darkness, so this evil minded man forbade ceremonies and processions during the new moon. He became envious, and apprehended that the twice-born who had become fearless would keep up their caste by going over to foreign countries ; he therefore ordered all the guards on the roads not to allow passage to any one without a written passport. Then as the fisherman torments fish in an enclosed river, so this low born man tormented the twice-born in the country. The Brahmanas burnt themselves in the flaming fire through fear of committing sin, and through fear of him who was like the heat of the fire ; and thus they escaped. Struck by fear some Brahmanas killed themselves by means of poison, some by the rope, others by drowning themselves in water, others again by falling from a precipice, and others burnt themselves. The country was contaminated by hatred, and the king’s favourite (Suha) could not prevent one man in a thousand from committing suicide. ... Suha withheld the allowances of the twice born with a view to extinguish learning, and they, in expectation of a mouthful of food, went from house to house, putting out their tongues like dogs. pp. 65-66 Variant/Paraphrased: Jonaraja gives more details. He begins by saying that while Sikandar put some limits to the persecution of the Hindus, tnese were now exceeded and there was no restraint. What he probably means is that, while the religious bigotry in the preceding reign took the forms mainly of destroying temples and demolishing the images of gods, Sthabhatta now more violently persecuted the Brahmanas. He imposed a fine or inflicted punishment (danda) on the Brahmanas and forbade religious sacrifices and processions (yoga-yatradi). Lest the Brahmanas leave the country to avoid the oppression and maintain their caste, orders were issued that no one might leave Kashmir without a passport, so that Sihabhatta might torment the Brahmanas as a fisherman torments the fish after putting them in a net in river. In spite of the regulation, some left the country by unfrequented roads. As to the rest, some tried to save themselves by putting on Muslim dress, while others put an end to their lives by fire, poison, drowning, hanging and jumping from a precipice. In order to put a stop to Hindu learning, Suhabhatta stopped the allowances of the Brahmanas, who had to move from door to door, like dogs, for food. It is interesting to note that Sthabhatta maintained that all these he did out of his regard for Islamic faith, and not out of any malice towards the Brahmanas (vv. 863-81). in Majumdar R. C., editor. The History and Culture of the Indian People The Delhi Sultanate. 4. ed. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. It was out of his devotion to the religion of the Turushkas, not out of antipathy towards the twice-born, that he oppressed the Brahmanas; and hence his victims did not much complain. This was what Suhabhatta told them inorder to remove the impression which his actions created that he had antipathy towards the Brahmanas. pp 67 Variant: “He (Suhabhatta) killed and tortured Brahmins not out of any malice or hatred towards them. It was just out of his devotion towards Turuskadarsana, the philosophy of Islam, that he killed them and that got him no feeling of committing the sin of murder.”... “As a storm uproots trees and locusts devastate a crop of rice, the lived life, the way of life that identified Kashmir was destroyed by Yavanas — the Muslims.”... Like a “child eating non-food items like clay and mud, Suhabhatta, with his aides indulged in jatividhvams, that is genocide of people.”... “The Brahmins said that they shall die if their jati is destroyed, that means they are converted to Islam. They were told that if they want to keep their jati they should pay the fine, that is Jaziya.” Rajatarangini by Jonaraja quoted at Sunanda Vashisht, What Did Muslim Sultan And Hindu King Of Kashmir Have In Common — They Were Both Turuksha The good country of Kashmira is adorned by the vedas with their six angas, and the vedantas, and the well arranged siddhantas, by logic and grammar, by the puranas, by the mantras, and by the six schools of philosophy ; by the followers of Shiva and of Vishnu, by the worshippers of the sun, by the Buddhists with their paintings and viharas and mathas ; by the vine, and the saffron, the grains, and the shali rice, and by fragrant flowers; by the puranas, and the shrutis and the tarkashastras; by the Brahmana worahippers of fire, and by the Brahmanas devoted to contemplation, austerities, prayers, and anxious for ablution and worship ; by kotis of nagas, by Hari and Hara ; and by the Gandharvvas and the Vidyadharas. Here the water is cool like the amrita of heaven. Rajataranginī of Jonaraja, translated by Jogesh Chunder Dutt, pp. 430. Quoted in The Brahmins of Kashmir, M. Witzel (1991), in a different translation. Variant: With the Vedas, the six appendices, with the Pada and Krama (texts), with Vedånta and Siddhånta, logic and grammar, Purana recitation, with (Tantric) Mantras and the six traditional sects ... with its masses of Puranic, Vedic (śruti) and logic disciplines (tarkaśåstra), and, moreover, marked by Agnihotrins, with Brahmins devoted to meditation, asceticism, recitation and so on, and zealeaously engaged with ablutions, worship, and the like, ... the land of Kashmir is the best. Rajataranginī of Jonaraja, B 747, quoted in M Witzel, The Brahmins of Kashmir External links Rajatarangini Category:1450s deaths Category:Historians from India