This somewhat unusual book is a biographical profile of the state of Jammu. The book is by no means a consistent historical work, a task that has been fulfilled by other historians such as L.N. Dhar, Mohan La! Kaul and many others who have written the history of Jammu and Kashmir. As a native of Jammu and scholar-poet of Dogri, Shivnath has written an account that is embedded deeply in the cultural fabric of the region enmeshing facets of its history, past and present, folklore and literature. The first chapter, ‘Jammu in recorded history’, is based on Persian texts like the 1arikh-i-Ferishta written in the sixteenth century, the Malfuzat-e- Timuri or the later-day Persian chronicle Mukhtasar Taarikhe Jammu va Ryaasat-haai-maftooha Maharaja Gulab Singh Bahadur
February 2007, volume 31, No 2