62 Address. [Feb., 



in Tulu and school-books in Kanarese and Malay&lim, and Seshagiri 

 Sastri has commenced a series of notes on Aryan and Dravidian phi- 

 lology. In Kanarese, besides school-books, is the Venisanhdr^ adapted 

 from Bhatta Narayana and founded on one of the popular stories regard- 

 ing the five Pandavas. 



Vernacular literature. — Even in a brief survey like the present one, I 

 cannot omit to notice the progress made in literature in general, as shown 

 by the records of the Library Department of Government. Under Act 

 XXV of 1867, for the regulation of printing-presses and newspapers, and 

 for the preservation of copies and registration of books printed in British 

 India, a book is kept in every Province called a ' Catalogue of books printed 

 in British India.' In this book is entered particulars of every publication 

 showing title, language, author, subject, place and date of printing, and 

 price, so that in this way we have a complete record of the indigenous 

 literature of the country. Every quarter, these lists are published in 

 English in the local Gazettes, with, in some cases, explanatory notices 

 of the contents. When it is remembered that the annual issues comprise 

 over 8000 separate publications, it will be understood that it would 

 be impossible now to attempt any detailed review of the immense mass 

 of literature thus brought to our notice, but it is possible to give you 

 some idea of the work done in the principal Provinces, and thus indicate 

 from the best of evidence what are the subjects that attract most atten- 

 tion and whither the increased literary activity that characterises the 

 present decade tends. 



ISTow, gentlemen, there is nothing in the dictum of our founder 

 already mentioned to you, that prohibits us from attending to these 

 matters. We are not a purely archosological Society, and, though, 

 perhaps, discussions on social and political questions are wisely ex- 

 cluded from our meetings and our publications, the scientific aspects 

 of these questions still remain with us. To the students of the many 

 languages and more numerous dialects of India, the translations into 

 them and the original works produced form valuable material for purely 

 philological purposes, even the veriest school-book affording some aid. 

 If to these be added the numerous anthologies of both prose and poetry 

 selected and annotated by educated natives to whom the language is a 

 living one, the large number of dramas, poems, novels, essays, and short 

 stories, most with some literary merit, I may safely say that the time has 

 come when more attention may well be paid, by those amongst us Avho 

 arc qualified for the task, to the study and review of this great evi- 

 dence of literary effort. India has its poets and its playwrights in every 

 Province, and if wc may judge from the number and frequency of each 

 issue, and the translations into almost every language of the more popu- 



