. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
where he is represented as a pious man gifted with a super- 
natural power of divination, and many anecdotes are related 
concerning him. As a poet, he occupies a very prominent 
enormous diffusion which this work had in Rajputana till about 
a century ago, is the best evidence of its excellence. That it 
is no longer popular to-day is simply due to the fact that the 
- difficult language in which it is couched, is no longer under- 
stood by the average reader. The poem is, of course, in 
Dingala, and though the subject—the story of the rape 
of Rukmini by Krsna and the sequel of their loves down to 
the birth of Pradyumna—is not bardic in itself, the treat- 
ment is bardic, the form is bardic, and the language is bardic. 
For my edition I have utilized eight manuscripts, mostly local, 
the oldest of which is dated in the year Samvat 1673, only 
gee dog years after the composition of ie work. The 
‘** Veli’? has had several commentaries: the earliest, which 
probably goes back to the very time of the Author, is in Old 
Dhidhari, or Old Eastern Rajasthani; two others are in Old 
Maravari, or Old Western os eeape oe and lastly there is one 
in Sanskrit composed by a vacaka Saranga at Palhanapura in 
the year Samvat 1678. Copious extracts from the various 
commentaries have been given in the Notes to the text, and 
it is hoped that they will be found of great help in under- 
standing a work which is by no means of easy reading. 
The cataloguing of the manuscripts found in the Bikaner 
State has been continued, and the compilation of fasciculus ii 
of Section 1, Part ii of the Descriptive Catalogue of Bardic and 
_ Historical M anuscripts, has been taken in 
All the materials locally available for the History of 
Bikaner have been examined and collated, and I expect I shall 
be able to begin the compilation of the work soon after finish- 
ing my winter touring this year. 
PUBLISHING. 
Of the four publications which were in the Press at the 
end of 1916, namely: (1) the Vacanika Ratana Singhaji rt 
Mahesadasota ri, (2) the fasciculusi of Descriptive Catalogue of 
Bardic and Historical M anuscripts, Section i: Prose Chronicles, 
Part i: Jodhpur State; (3) the fasciculus i of Ditto, Part ii: 
Bikaner State; and (4) ‘the fasciculus i of Descriptive Catalogue 
oe Bardic and Historical Manuscripts, Section ii: Bardic Poetry, 
i: Bikaner State, three were completely printed off 
dark the year, but only one was issued before December 
3lst. This is the fasciculus of the Descriptive Catalogue dealing 
with manuscripts found in Jodhpur. As the Jodhpur Darbar 
