6. A Progress Report on the Preliminary Work done 

 during the year 1915 in connection with the Proposed 

 Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana. 



By Dr. L. P. Tessitori. 



Introduction. 



The difficulties which have made it impossible to com- 

 mence the Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana in 

 Jodhpur on the lines proposed in the scheme approved by the 

 Council of the Asiatic Society in December 1914, and published 

 in the Society's Journal for that month (Vol. X, pp. 373-410) 

 have been briefly referred to in the Society's Annual Report for 

 the present year (1915). These led, as there stated, to the 

 transference of my work to Bikaner, where it is hoped that it 

 may be possible to commence the Survey on similar lines, 

 though probably on a smaller scale. 



I moved to Bikaner on the 6th December, invited by 

 H. H. the Maharaja, who had decided to employ me for four 

 months in the first instance, i.e. from December to the end of 

 March, to examine the bardic and historical materials in the 

 Darbar Library in the Fort, and suggest a plan for future 

 work. At the end of the four months, the advisability of a 

 further employment in connection with the compilation of a 

 History of Bikaner and the publication of the most impor- 

 tant bardic poems referring to the State, will be taken into 

 consideration together with the questiop'frf funds. The field is 



w one, and the intey^gent and enlightened 

 support of the present Maharaja, Colonel Sir Ganga Singh, 

 affords good hopes of a complete success. 



The Work Done. 



The work now under report was started from the 1st 

 January, 1915, in accordance with the plan laid down in my 

 "Scheme for the Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana," 



limited 



my disposal. My two assistants, Pandit Rama Karna and 

 Carana Ki&ora Dana, were liberated from the Tawarikh and 



had 



-6th of January, but I had been able to utilize their services 

 even before, in their non-office hours. The travelling man, 

 Bhata Nanu Rama, was regularly employed from the 1st of 

 January, and so was the copyist. The two former assistants 



