374 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [Nov., 1914. 



absolutely worthless for any philological purpose, having evi- 

 dently been prepared by half illiterate and careless copyists. 



After three months' stay in Rajputana, partly spent in 

 touring and partly in studying Dingala and Marwarl manu- 

 scripts in Jodhpur, where I established my headquarters, I 

 am now able to submit a Scheme for the Bardic and Historical 

 Surveij of Rajputana, which I am confident will answer the 

 purpose of the Government of India. Besides the Scheme, 

 I have also been able to prepare for the press the first fasci- 



»/ 



MSS 



and to collect materials for the edition of the Vacanika 



9 



Rathora Rava Ratana Singhaji r% M ahesadasota rl, a bardic 

 poem of the seventeenth century referring to the battle of 

 Ujain between Jasvant Singh of Jodhpur and Aurangzeb (a.d. 

 1658). Specimens of both the Catalogue and the Vacanika, as 

 well as of the Bulletin, a quarterly publication, the object 

 and nature of which is described in the following pages, have 

 been prepared in illustration of the Scheme and are given 

 in Appendix to the same. Many years have been wasted in 

 sterile talks and fruitless attempts, and it is time to set to 

 work in earnest and destroy the feeling, which has begun to 

 prevail in Rajputana, that the Government of India's Scheme 

 for the publication of the Bardic literature is nothing more than 

 a mere show and will never lead to any practical results. 



The sum involved by the following Scheme is Rs. 12,000 

 a year. Deducting from this sum Rs. 2000, it may possibly 

 be 3000 or more, which will be contributed by the Jodhpur 

 State, the annual sum to be contributed by the Government 

 of India is Rs. 10,000. If the plan of work described in the 

 following Scheme is agreed upon, the Government should 

 sanction the first yearly grant of Rs. 10,000 for the official 

 year beginning with 1st April 1915. The work and publica- 

 tions of the Survey, however, should begin from the 1st 

 January, 1915, and therefore an additional further non-recur- 

 ring grant of Rs. 1000 necessary for starting the Survey and 

 continuing it for three months, exclusive of the editor's stipend, 

 which has been already paid as far as April, 1915, will have 

 to be sanctioned for the period 1st January to 31st March. 



Preliminary Observations. 



It is obvious that without a clear knowledge of local 

 conditions in Rajputana, and especially of the languages, manu- 



to 



can 



prepare a Scheme that will work and bring results. The 

 hrst problem I had to meet before drawing the outlines of the 

 proposed work, was connected with the three subjects just 

 mentioned, and it was only after coming to definite conclu- 

 sions in regard to them, that I was able to realize the course 



