1871.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 277 
preservation and as fresh looking as if just issued from a mint, 
were forwarded for deposit in the Central Museum at Lihor.’ 
- Babi Rajendralila Mitra read the following report, for 1870-71, 
on the progress he had made in cataloguing Sanskrit MSS. that 
are found in private libraries in Bengal. 
*‘T have the honor to submit the following report on the opera- 
tions carried on during the last official year (1870-71) for collecting 
information regarding Sanskrit manuscripts in native Libraries. 
2. The task of searching for MSS. during the past year was 
confided to the travelling Pandit solely, circumstances not having 
permitted me to proceed to the mofussil. The Pandit had, how- 
ever, the aid of the Rev. J. Long for a time at Dacca, and subse- 
quently consulted me regularly about his work, furnishing me 
every week nominal lists of whatever MSS. he met with, and notic- 
ing in detail those only which I thought to be new or rare. 
3. Nearly four months were spent by the Pandit at Dacca, 
Vikrampur, and other old towns and villages in Eastern Bengal, 
and most of the leading pandits and zemindars of those places 
were consulted. No one evinced any disposition to withhold in- 
formation or aid. The Kundu family of Bhagyakula took great 
interest in the operations of the Pandit. They convened a meet- 
ing of the influential people of their neighbourhood at their house, 
and urged them to assist us with the loan of MSS. They also 
testified their sense of the importance of the undertaking by sub- 
scribing Rs. 1000, towards its furtherance. The amount was sent 
to the Government of Bengal, and has since been received by the 
Society. Dacca, however, though celebrated as a seat of commerce 
for over two thousand years, and the metropolis of Bengal for a 
time during the supremacy of the Muhammadans, never acquired 
any reputation for learning, and does not contain ,any Sanskrit 
work of great value. All the MSS. that were examined turned out 
to be such as are common everywhere, or of little importance. Be- 
tween forty and fifty little treatises were found, which were new 
to the Society, and detailed notices of these have been secured, 
4. On the return of the Pandit from Dacca he was sent to 
Bansberiya in Zilla Hugli, which was at one time noted as a seat 
