Nineteenth-century European orientalists and philologists considered the Rajatarangini-a twelfth-century Sanskrit historical narrative from Kashmir-as the only Indian text to which the status of history could be accorded. This paper analyzes several late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century translations of this text by both Europeans and Indians to illustrate the mediated nature of the process of colonial and nationalist production of knowledge about Indias past-indeed of the idea of history itself-in British India.

Through a generous endowment from John W. Kluge, the Library of Congress established the Kluge Center in 2000 to bring together the world's best thinkers to stimulate and energize one another to distill wisdom from the Library's rich resources and to interact with policymakers in Washington. For further information on the Kluge Center, visit www.loc.gov/kluge.