14. 



Work 



year 1916 in connection with the Bardic and Historical 



Survey of Rajputana. 



By Dr. L. P. Tessitort. 



The New Scheme. 



The progress of the work during the year under report, has 

 been on the whole very satisfactory, and thanks to the good- 

 will of the Government of India and the Avarm support of the 

 Bikaner Darbar on one side and of the Director General of 

 Archaeology on the other, arrangements have been made which 

 will ensure the continuation of the Bardic and Historical Survey 

 of Rajputana for a reasonable period, and eliminate all the 

 difficulties and the uncertainties which had been handicapping 

 the work during the last year. As mentioned in my last 

 ■ Progress Report" {J our n. As. Soc. of Beng., Vol. XII. No 3, 

 1910. pp. 57ff.), I had left Jodhpur for Bikaner on December 

 6th, 1915, invited by H.H. the Maharaja of Bikaner, who had 

 promised to employ me for a period of four months in the first 

 instance, i.e. up to the end of March 1916, to examine the 

 bardic and historical materials in the Darbar Library in the 

 Fort, and suggest a plan tor future work. Before the expira- 

 tion of this period, I had completed a Descriptive Catalogue of 

 the manuscripts of prose chronicles in the afore-mentioned 

 Library, and submitted it to the Darbar. who on March 17th 

 decided to entrust me with the compilation of a History of 

 Bikaner and the publication of some of the most important 

 bardic poems relating to this State. Accordingly, the Bikaner 

 Darbar approached the Government of India desirmg that my 

 services might be lent to them for a period of one year more 

 and offering to share in the expenditure involved. 



Early in May, the Government of India sanctioned the 

 grant towards my stipend for the year 1916-17. but in terms 

 which left some doubt as to whether they would continue their 

 assistance bevond the end of March 1917. Realizing that the 

 support of the Government of India was essential tor the 

 success of research work to be carried out in a difficult new 

 like the Native States of Rajputana, and knowing that the 

 financial economv imposed by the present political situation 

 was the chief and perhaps only reason why toftem*** 

 India were uncertain about the continuation of their ass.stance. 

 I resolved to abandon the idea of an exhaustive survey as 

 advocated in my big Scheme of 1914, and substitute tor it a 



