386 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [Xov, 1914. 



will be coordinate and localized. Under these new circum- 

 stances will it still be convenient to keep the Survey under 

 the control of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ? 



There are three sides to this question; a practical, a moral 

 and a political one, and they should all be taken into consi- 

 deration by the Government of India and also by the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal. The first is the distance of Calcutta from 

 the field of the work, which means an impossibility on the part 

 of the Society to judge of the adaptability of the plan followed 

 by the editor to the local conditions and needs of Rajputana, 

 a retardation in the progress of the work, if the editor and local 

 superintendent is to communicate with the Government 

 through the Society, and lastly a certain waste of time and 

 money which will necessarily be involved in the editor's 

 periodical visits to Calcutta and in all his dealings with the 

 Society. The second or moral side of the question is the 

 diminution in prestige that will be suffered in a country like 

 Rajputana if the Survey is represented as the undertaking 

 of a private society of which most of the inhabitants have 

 never heard, instead of that of the Government of India, and 

 the consequent diminution in efficiency. The Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal is a name without meaning to most, if not all, of the 

 native people with whom the Survey will have to deal, not to 

 say an hostile one, in so far as it indicates an alien province 

 with winch Rajputs and bards keep no connection and which 

 they would not like to interfere in their affairs. The third 

 point is a political one. The Bardic and Historical Survey of 

 Rajputana is a work such as cannot be done except with the 

 consent and co-operation of the States concerned. In the 

 States that are hostile and diffident it would be both vain and 

 dangerous to undertake even a mere search. In the States 

 that are willing to give help, the work should be organized 

 and earned on in agreement with the political circumstances, 

 and the editor and local superintendent should keep in con- 

 tinuous touch with the various Darbars, submit to them 

 periodical reports, plans and suggestions, consult them on the 

 means to be adopted in particular cases, make inquiries as to 

 how they approve of his work, and keep their interest con- 

 stantly awake. Now, all this cannot be done through nor in 

 the name of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, but only through 

 the political agents to the Government of India, who should 

 be consulted as to the advisability of adopting any particular 



tT 3 !,' ?l P uttin S bef °re the Darbar any particular question. 

 Indeed the very plan of the Survey is to be drawn in accor- 

 dance with political conditions, and the proof is in the present 

 beneme which is especially made for one particular State, in 

 which political conditions are most favourable. 



Ihe three points discussed above combine to show, in my 

 opinion at least, that if the control on the Bardic and His- 



