Writing of Kalhana of Kashmir vis-a-vis his predecessors

“Kalhana of Kashmir is said to be the first Historian of India . How were his writings fundamentally different from those of his predecessors ?

Kalhana’s  Rajatrangini was the first work that treated History as a subject and tried to view the various rulers of India in general and Kashmir in particular through an impartial lense. It was fundamentally different from the previous works in following ways:

• It separated History from mythology unlike in Puranas in which the History and mythology were indistinguishable.
• It was critical of the view of various rulers unlike the Prashasti tradition in which eulogizing the ruler was the sole motive
• It described in great detail the socio-economic condition prevalent in a manner which was far more Historical than earlier works
• It also touched upon the scientific and Engineering works being undertaken at the times.He , for example , described the diverting of mighty rivers of the Kashmir valley by the mud dams created by Engineer Suyya.

It would not be wrong to say that in the tradition of writing History , Kalhana foreboded the coming of Al-Beruni.