Śānta and vairāgya are two fundamental ideas at the basis of the Rājataraṅgiṇī literary genre of history writing in Kashmir. The various Rājataraṅgiṇīs aim at generating emotional responses on the part of the reader with a view to prompting liberating effects. They are all the more effective if what is expressed there in a poetically manner corresponds to historical facts (yathābhūtam): Insight into the truth about the human condition must ultimately lead to vairāgya. These concepts of historical truth poetry are based on Kashmiri theories of literature (rasa, dhvani).

See:

Walter Slaje, ‘In the Guise of Poetry’ – Kalhaṇa Reconsidered. In: Śāstrārambha. Inquiries into the Preamble in Sanskrit. Edited by Walter Slaje. Preface by Edwin Gerow. [AKM. LXII]. Wiesbaden 2008: 207–244.

Lawrence McCrea, Śāntarasa in the Rājataraṅgiṇī: History, epic and moral decay. The Indian Economic and Social History Review 50, 2 (2013): 179–199.

Luther Obrock, History at the end of history: Śrīvara’s Jainataraṅgiṇī. The Indian Economic and Social History Review 50, 2 (2013): 221–236.

 

The liberating literary method as such was applied already by Aśvaghoṣa:

Roland Steiner, Truth under the Guise of Poetry. Aśvaghoṣa’s “Life of the Buddha”. In: Biography in the Buddhist Traditions. Ed. by Linda Covill, Ulrike Roesler, Sarah Shaw. Boston 2010: 89–121.

 

Another Kashmiri work of major importance which aims at triggering liberating effects through mere insight is the Mokṣopāya (alias Yogavāsiṣṭha), as the title of its first Prakaraṇa (“Vairāgya-Prakaraṇa”) unambiguously indicates:

Text:

https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/Mok%E1%B9%A3op%C4%81ya_-_Textedition_Teil_1._Das_erste_und_zweite_Buch:_Vairagyaprakarana_Mumuksuvyavaharaprakarana/titel_3591.ahtml

and translation:

https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/Mok%E1%B9%A3op%C4%81ya_-_%C3%9Cbersetzung_Teil_1_Das_Erste_und_Zweite_Buch:_Das_Buch_%C3%BCber_die_Leidenschaftslosigkeit_Das_Buch_%C3%BCber_das_Verhalten_der_Befreiungssucher/titel_340.ahtml

 

Kind regards,

WS