Title: KASHMIR, KALHAN’S RAJTARANGINI AND THE 'MAGAR KING ARAMUDI' IN OBSCURE HISTORY
Description: * Aramudi, a name of considerable significance in the 8th century Himalayan history, particularly the history of Kashmir, hence both Nepal and India’s also but little explored and analyzed, still  romanticizes historians, researchers and general readers alike in the region. Historians have diverging views on “King Aramudi, who ruled Nepal, and who was possessed of wisdom and prowess, wished to prevail over him (King Jayapida) by cleverness”[1]. Whether this “famous king of Nepaldesh”[2]  was a king or a local ‘chieftain’[3] in the Kali Gandaki region, has been a question among the authorities.

* Marc Aurel Stein, who first translated Kalhan’s Rajtarangini into English approves of the battle of Kaligandaki in between Aramudi and Jayapida which Sylvain Levi has doubted. King Aramudi seems to have fallen prey to ‘Project Hinduization’ (Gurung, 1989)[4] or come within the virtual boundary of cultural modernization (Thapa, 2006)[5] in the country. If we believed in Levi’s discussion then Aramudi appears to us to be a Tibetan administrator posted at Kali Gandaki Region(Levi 1905 -08)[6]. Following, the Levian footmarks, multitudes of others have also nominated Aramudi to be a Tibetan administrator. 

* Does King Aramudi’s battle with Kashmiri King Jayapida in Kali Gandaki belong to “domain of romance” ?[7] This question leads us to search through an obscure part of the Himalayan history relating to Kashmir’s also, which is made full of controversies by different scholars. 

* There have been lots of research works on Mongols and Magyars but not that much on Mongols and the Magars of the Himalayan region. Some  Hungarian scholars believe their ancestors were from Central Asia and that is why (Alexander)Sándor Csoma de Körös went to the Himalayas in search of his ancestors but died en route in Darjeeling in 1842.