PREFACE XIX Chureh, and I must thank Professor Narayanchandra Banerjee M.A. of the University for a copy of Gupta- ratnoddhar which I could not get here and which he pro- cured for me very promptly from Benares. My friend, Babu Mohitlal Mazumdar, very kindly and carefully pre- pared an index to this volume, which, for shortness of time, could not be printed in this volume. I must also acknowledge obligations to the Staff of the Caleutta Uni- versity Press for prompt assistance and unfailing courtesy in getting these pages in print in a remarkably short time. To them and to all others who have helped me by lending books, by giving facilities for research and in other ways, it is a pleasure to return my heartiest thanks. I cannot conclude without availing myself here of the privilege of expressing my deep sense of obligation to Sir Asutosh Mukhopadhyaya who has been at the helm of this University for many years past and would be, let us hope, for many years to come. It is not necessary to dwell upon his undoubted titles to our gratitude, esteem and love, or upon the roll of his varied services, not yet closed, in the cause of University education in Bengal: for every one, connected with the University or standing outside, is well aware of his long and unstinted devotion to the interests of the country and of the high sense of duty which impels him to scorn delights and live labori- ous days, not for riches or honours, place or power nor even for such fame as grows on mortal soil. But I may be permitted to refer in this connexion to his brilliant and fruitful efforts which have at last obtained academic recog- nition for the negleeted vernacular languages and _liter- atures of India and to acknowledge the magnificent in- ducement, now made possible by him, for the scientific study of those languages and literatures. It is his in- spiration which dispelled all my doubts about the necessity
