Vol. X, Xo. 10.] Bardic and Histl. Survey of Rajputana. 3S1 

 [N.S.] 



success of the Survey. Indeed the help that will be derived 

 from the Jodhpur Darbar is the utmost we can ever expect, 

 and it will be a magnificent example for the other States, 

 which, when their turn comes, will do all in their power to 

 emulate it. Besides this, the Jodhpur State is the richest, as 

 far as I can guess at the present moment, in bardic and 

 historical productions, and its history is perhaps the most im- 

 portant, not only for its grand warlike deeds, but also for its 

 bearing on the history of a number of other States, Bikaner and 

 certain minor ones, which are connected with it in blood and 

 origin. Up to the sixteenth century there is only one history 

 of all the Rathora States of Rajputana, and this is the histor'v 

 of the Rathoras that founded Jodhpur. It is logical that afte'r 

 finishing with the Jodhpur State, the Survey should take up 

 Bikaner, the oldest and biggest of all the offshoots of Jodhpur, 

 and then by turn Kisangarh etc., all of which, fortunately, are 

 ready to give help. This Survey of the Rathora States will 

 take eight to ten years at least to complete, and we cannoi 

 foresee now what circumstances will make it advisable to do 

 at that time. But this much we can say, that, for practical 

 reasons, the preference shall be given to that State which, 

 besides being rich in materials, will also be most willing to give 

 assistance in the work. It may be Bundi and Kota, or it may 

 be Jesalmer, or it may even be one of the few States, whose 

 leaders, handicapped by exaggerate orthodoxy and obscuran- 

 tism, have as yet failed to realize the benefit the Government 

 of India is ready to confer upon them by means of the Bardic 

 and Historical Survey, provided they awake from their slumber 

 and take up their position by the side of the glorious Rathoras. 

 What will be the object of the Bardic and Historical 

 Survey and what the means to attain it ? In entrusting the 

 preliminary survey to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1905. 

 the Government of India stated that their object ultimately 

 was to have manuscripts of Bardic Chronicles searched for and 

 properly edited, translated and annotated. Here the term 

 " Bardic Chronicles " is rather an obscure and improper one, 

 but it is clear that by it the Government of India mean bardic 

 poems and songs and prose chronicles. Now these are two very 

 different things, and though they can be treated together in the 

 search, they must be kept separate in the editing and publish- 

 ing. The fact is that whilst bardic poems, when they have 

 any interest at all, always deserve to be critically edited and 

 translated, on account of the literary form in which they are 

 couched; prose chronicles, with very few exceptions, would 

 never pay the pains and cost of editing and translating. They 

 are no finished historical works and have no literary claims : 

 they are simply a source of historical information, a rich mine 

 of rouorh ffems, which will onlv shine after thev are nolished and 



arranged in a necklace. They are no histories, but simply 



