1900.] on Ancient Momiments in India. $9 



greater number of those at any rate which are well known and visited, 

 are not indigenous in origin, it remains true, on the other hand, that it 

 is iti the exploration and study of purely Indian remains, in the probing 

 of archaic mounds, in the excavation of old Indian cities, and in the 

 copying and reading of ancient inscriptions, that a good deal of the 

 exploratory work of the aicheeologist in India will in fulure lie. The 

 later pages of Indian history are known to us, and cnn be lead by all. 

 But a curtain of dark and lomantic mystery hangs over the earlier 

 chaptejs, of which we are only slowly beginning to lift the corners. 

 This also is not less an obligation of Government. Epigraphy should 

 not be set behind research any more than research should be set behind 

 conservation. All are ordered parts of any scientific scheme of anti- 

 quarian work. I am not one of those who think that Goveinment can 

 afford to patronise the one and ignore the other. It is, in my 

 judgment, equally our duty to dig and discover, to classify, reproduce, 

 and describe, to copy and decipher, and to cherish and conserve. Of 

 restoration I cannot, on the present occasion, undertake to speak, since 

 the principles of legitimate and artistic restoration require a more 

 detailed analysis than I have time to bestow upon them this evening. 

 But it will be seen from what I have said that my view of the obliga- 

 tions of Government is not grudging, and that my estimate of the work 

 to be done is ample. 



If then the question be asked how has the British Government 

 hitherto discharged, and how is it now discharging its task, what is the 

 answer that must be returned ? I may say in preface that were the 

 answer unfavourable — and I will presently examine that point — we 

 should merely be forging a fresh link in an unbroken historic chain. 

 Every or nearly every successive religion that has permeated or over- 

 swept this country has vindicated its own fervour at the expense of the 

 rival whom it had dethroned. When the Brahmans went to Ellora, 

 they hacked away the features of all the seated Buddhas in the rock- 

 chapels and halls. When Kutub-ud-din commenced, and Altamsh 

 continued, the majestic mosque that flanks the Kutub Minar, it was 

 with the spoil of Hindu temples that they reared the fabric, carefully 

 defacing or besmearing the sculptured Jain images, as they consecrated 

 them to their novel purpose. What part of India did not bear witness 

 to the ruthless vandalism of the great iconoclast Aurungzeb ? When 

 we admire his great mosque with its tapering minarets, which are the 

 chief feature of the river front at Benares, how many of us remember 

 that he tore down the holy Hindu temple of Vishveshwar to furnish the 

 material and to supply the site ? Nadir Shah during his short 

 Indian inroad effected a greater spoliation that has probably ever been 



