xvi Proceedings of the 
this evening—! mean the achievement of scholars of different 
nationalities i in the domain of Indo 
The greatest werk in this deparément, which is also the 
greatest event of the year just closed, is the publication of the 
first volume of the long projected and keenly expected Cam- 
bridge History of India, the first of a series of six, setting forth 
the middle of the first century of the Christian era. A glance 
at this work suggests many ideas for our reflection. In 1839, 
when Mount-stuart Elphinstone first attempted a com- 
prehensive History of India, he remarked: ‘‘No date of a 
public event can be fixed before the invasion of Alexander, 
and no connected relation of the national transactions until 
after the Mahomedan conquest.” The first part of this state- 
ment is still true, if it is strictly taken to mean that no date 
of an historical event anterior to ‘the invasion of Alexander can 
of materials now available for the reconstruction of the ancient 
history of this country ; and even in respect of the pre- 
Alexandrian period, * ‘connected relation” is possible and has 
been established in the case of at least the social and religious 
history of India 
But what is this wealth of materials accessible to us, you 
will perhaps ask, which have made the reconstruction of our 
past history possible? Briefly, they are the literary composi- 
tions and the archeological monuments. So far as the first 
of these sources goes, there can be no doubt that we have 
made much headway in the publication of the literarv compo- 
sitions of ancient India. Thanks chiefly to the industry and 
devotion of European scholars. almost the whole of Vedie 
literature is now before us for study and utilisation for histori- 
cal purposes. All the important works of Pali Buddhism are 
now accessible to us for the same purpose, principally through 
the unflagging and disinterested efforts of the late Professor 
Rhys Davids, who has just passed away, to the extreme grief 
of scholars in all countries. In regard to later periods, the 
grin brought out in such series as the Bibliotheca 
Indica of our Society, the Bombay Sanskrit and Prakrit series, 
the Ravvaasals, the Vizianagram series, the Benares Sanskrit 
series, the Chaukhamba series, the Trivandrum Sanskrit series, 
ploration of the ancient history of India. I do not for a 
moment intend to imply that no further work remains to be 
done in the matter of such publication ; all that I intend to- 
ee Aes is that much progress has been achieved in this 
direction. Such is not, however, the case with the collection 
and study of archeological monuments, which, as I have 

