Nainsi's Khyat - English Translation

Abstract

This item is is a translation of the best-known Rajput chronicle from the seventeenth-century, compiled by Nainsi (i.e., Munhata Nainsi Khyat, ed. Badariprasad Sakaria [Jodhpur: Rajasthan Pracyavidya Pratisthan, 1960]). Dr. Saran’s is the only existing English translation of this extremely important text, which records the history of multiple families of Rajput warriors. It provides an indigenous vantage point into the local political elite of Rajasthan, an invaluable alternative to the much more common view from the imperial center. Mertiyo Rathors, the publication by Dr. Saran and Norman Ziegler, included several passages in translation from Nainsi’s Khyat (or the Chronicle of Nainsi) but the chronicle is quite lengthy. Dr. Saran’s complete English translation of it comprises 3 volumes: vol. 1 (238 pp. in Times New Roman, 12 pt); vol. 2 (204 pp.); and vol. 3 (173 pp.). Access to Dr. Saran’s translation should be especially helpful to scholars working on different eras or regions of South Asian history, for its wealth of details on the leading Rajput families of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.