86 Reproduction of Ancient Manuscripts. [Mat, 



" Unfortunately, the amount of support given to the Palseographicai 

 Society has been so small that it will be necessary to discontinue the 

 series, though much against the wish of the Committee. The scantiness 

 of this support may be illustrated from the fact that even the Govern- 

 ment of India, usually so liberal in such matters, subscribed for no more 

 than a single copy. I mention this, chiefly for the benefit of your Society, 

 of Babu Rajendralala (to whom I may request you to communicate this, as 

 I have not the honour of his personal acquaintance) and of all interested 

 in the publication of his " Notices of Sanskrit MSS.," that no misappre- 

 hension may arise as to the necessity of publishing accurate reproduc- 

 tions ; yet I cannot but feel also that most excellent and characteristic 

 work might be done by your Society, both through its Committee and its 

 influential individual members, if a good number of additional subscrip- 

 tions could be got from provincial Governments, Societies, and indivi- 

 duals. 



" A propos of reproductions, I trust I shall not be thought discourteous 

 in expressing a wish that all scholars in India, who give us facsimiles of 

 MSS. or inscriptions, would at least use some process of permanent photo- 

 graphy, even if the collotype or autotype direct from the original used by 

 the Palseographical Society be unknown to Calcutta photographers. I 

 could not but feel there was a great deal of truth in the strictures of 

 Dr. E. Hultzch of Vienna in the ' Indian Antiquary ' of Nov. 1882, (pp. 

 312-3) as to the reproductions furnished to us by scholars in Bengal, 

 though I am bound to say I think their tone unnecessarily severe. But 

 there can be little doubt, as I know from experience, that to the syste- 

 matic student of paleography a few words in a good photograph are 

 worth more than pages of mere lithographic imitation." 



A letter was also read from Dr. Rajendralala Mitra on the same sub^ 

 ject, in which he says : — 



" Mr. Bendall is quite right in calling our attention to the desirable- 

 ness of securing photographic reproduction of ancient records in a per- 

 manent form. Reduced eye-copies are as worthless for critical purposes 

 as transcripts, and our aim should be to get as many photos as we can. 

 But our artistic resources are exceedingly limited, and it is not often even 

 easy to get silver prints, and they fade and become illegible in a decade. 

 The only place where we can look for permanent prints is the Surveyor 

 General's Office and there Major Waterhouse is always willing to help us. 

 But his collotype is exceedingly troublesome and costly, and it is practicable 

 only during the three months of our winter. His photo-zincographs 

 cost less and can be worked all the year round, but I have often heard him 

 complain of great pressure of. public work in his Department. Sometimes 

 my old MSS. are of such a colour that they don't yield good results under 



