Kalhana (Sanskrit: कल्हण, romanized: kalhaṇa) was the author of Rajatarangini (River of Kings), an account of the history of Kashmir.
Srëë Kalhandeva was born in a Hindu Brahmin family to a Kashmiri minister, Chanpaka, who probably served king Harsha of the Lohara dynasty.
[5] Kalhana was familiar with earlier epics such as the Vikramankadevacharita of Bilhana, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, to all of which he alludes in his own writings.
[6] However, his own writings did not employ what Stein has described as "the very redundant praise and flattery which by custom and literary tradition Indian authors feel obliged to bestow on their patrons".
From this comes Stein's deduction that Kalhana was not a part of the circle surrounding Jayasimha, the ruling monarch at the time when he was writing the Rajatarangini.