378 Journal of the Ayatic Society of Bengal. [Nov. , 1914. 



genealogies and live on them, will never part with their books, 

 and some go even so far in their jealousy as to conceal their 

 books from any inquirer, out of fear they might be taken from 

 them. But, fortunately for us, concealment is not very 

 frequent, and generally those who are not willing to sell their 

 books have no objection to showing them and even lending 

 them for a time. In Jodhpur I have examined some bardic 

 and historical collections of Caranas, that have been found to 

 be very rich and to contain most valuable materials. I have 

 also been borrowing books from them and have started a 

 Descriptive Catalogue, the commencement of which I hope may 

 be published shortly, and specimens of which will be found in 

 the Appendix to the present Scheme. Bardic and historical 

 manuscripts are also necessarily found in the Darbar Librarv 

 of each Rajput State. It is only after the most important of 

 such collections have been explored and the manuscripts in 

 them described and classified, that a fairly adequate idea of 

 the vastness of the Bardic and Historical Literature and also 

 of the importance of these materials for the history of Raj- 

 putana as well as of India, as a whole, can possiblv be attained. 

 INIanuscripts in large collections are, as a rule, carefully kept 

 by their possessors, and freely shown to anybody who takes 

 interest in them, and so in their case there is no need of trying 

 to secure them lest they might get lost or destroyed, nor of 

 making copies of them. They are kept ready for us anv time 

 we need to refer to them, and all we want is a Descriptive 

 Catalogue that will tell us where they are. The case is different 

 with small collections and scattered manuscripts, which are 

 not much cared for, and might possibly fall into fresh hands. 

 In the case of these, efforts should be made to secure them, in 

 order to save them from neglect or destruction, and when pur- 

 chasing is not possible, pains should be taken to obtain them on 

 loan so that they may be examined and studied and, in the case 

 of very important manuscripts, copied in a critical way. As 

 a rule scattered manuscripts, when thev are sold at all, are 

 sold very cheaply, and it will always pay to buy as many as 

 possible. I have bought for one rupee manuscripts of which 

 apart from their intrinsic value— the mere copying would 

 now cost ten or twelve. 



Turnin e now to the bards, I must point out that Mahamaho- 

 padhyaya Hara Prasada Sastrl in his afore-mentioned Preliminary 

 Meport has given an Appendix on the bards, in which of the 

 two chief classes of them, Caranas and Bhatas, the former are 

 rather diminished and discredited, whilst the latter are dignified 

 beyond what they actually are. The reason for this is simply 

 that the Sastrl derived most of his information from a Bhata, 

 JHo naturally enough availed himself of the opportunity of 

 discrediting his rivals, the Caranas, before him. The fact is 

 that by far the most influential class of bards in Rajputana, 



