Kalhana, born in Baramulla district of Jammu & Kashmir, is regarded as the first historian of India. Between CE 1148 to 1150, he chronicled the sequential history of the kings and queens of the 12th century Kashmir detailing the sculpture, architecture, coinage, and manuscripts, etc., in a Sanskrit poetic composition of 7,826 verses, set in eight cantos of varying length; each a Taranga or a wave of the Rajtarangini—the royal river.