To Pandit Damodar:

“At the time these pages are passing through press, news reaches me that this most learned and amiable of all Kashmirian scholars has fallen victim to the epidemic now raging the valley. By the death of Pandit Damodar whose scholarly acqirements and poetic gifts was facile princes among the Pandits of Srinagar, Sanskrit learning in Kashmir has suffered a service loss. My lamented friend had set himself the task of continuing the Rajatarangini from the time of Akbar to the present date and from what I have seen of the parts composed, I may say that had he been spared to complete it, his work would have shown that Kalhana could have found for generations past no worthier successor.” - Aurel Stein.

(writing in 1892) Kalhana’s Rajatarangini.

To Pandit Govind Kaul:

Pandit Govind Kaul died on July 4, 1899. His death created a personal void in Aurel Stein’s life. He mourned that his friend and co- worker had died before he could see the, English translation with commentary of the Rajatarangini out from the press. Emotionally it was difficult for Stein to bear the untimely demise of his friend with whom in the preceding decade he had discussed every point of the Kalhana’s text. The sadness lingered in his heart for a long time. He poured out his grief on many occasions at different times.

“The news which moved me very deeply and will remain a sorrow for a long time, my Pandit, Govind Kaul, my faithful co-worker since 1888, succumbed to a fever in Srinagar. From a confused communication I conclude that it was typhoid. A single letter earlier had reported the Pandit’s illness but without preparing me for this great loss. The man was only about 50 years old. On my departure from Lahore nothing led me to conclude that it would be a separation for life. Since he could not be of further help to me on the Rajatarangini, I had arranged that the Asiatic Society would have him work on the Kashmiri Sanskrit Dictionary. It would have been a monument to his erudition. You will understand that his premature death, a man who was my daily co-worker for ten years and for whose knowledge I had true respect, is effecting me very profoundly.” - Aurel Stein.

(in a letter, dated July 13,1899 to his elder brother Ernst Stein.) Stein Mss, Bodleian Library, Oxford.