INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 371 



kings of Valabhi, ranging from 426 to 766, after wliicli occur 

 inscriptions of various families of minor importance. The exact 

 chronological place of the Gupta era, a historical question which has 

 been discussed, by scholars for forty years, is ascribed by Mr. Fleet, 

 after a learned and exhaustive discussion, to A.D. 319-320. 



Lists of inscriptions in Southern India were drawn up by 

 Mr. R. Sewell, and these, together with a sketch of the dynasties 

 of Southern India, were published by Government in 1884.* 



In 1886, at the suggestion of Dr. Burgess, a circular letter was 

 issued by the Governmeut of India to the local governments, to 

 afford all assistance to the surveyors in framing lists of existing 

 inscriptions. The same year saw the first attempt towards the 

 elucidation of the Tamil inscriptions of Southern India, when 

 Mr. Burgess produced a work on Tamil and Sanskrit inscriptions.")" 

 The first batch of notes and inscriptions had been collected in the 

 Madura district in 1883. The second part contains 56 Tamil 

 inscriptions, collected at the great temple of Rainesvaram and 

 elsewhere, in the Ramnad Zamindari, and the third part, a mis- 

 cellaneous collection of both Tamil and Sanskrit inscriptions from 

 various parts of the Madras Presidency. In the same year (1886) 

 Dr. E. Hitltzsch, a German scholar, versed in the Sanskrit, Pali, and 

 Dravidian languages, was appointed Bpigraphist to the Government 

 of Madras, and during that and the following year he collected 

 over 150 Tamil and Sanskrit inscriptions from stone and copper- 

 plate edicts at Mamallapuram, Kanchipuram, in the North Arcot 

 district, and other parts of the Madras Presidency.! 



With the object of promoting still further the study of Indian 

 inscriptions, a quarterly publication entitled " Epigraphia Indica 

 and Archasological Survey Record " was started under the editor- 

 ship of Dr. Burgess in October 1888. A grant of Rs. 6,000 

 (afterwards reduced to Rs. 4,000) was made to this undertaking by 

 the Government of India. Of this publication, eight parts (456 



* Archaeological Survey of Southern India, Vol. II. — Lists of inscriptions and 

 sketch of the dynasties of Southern India. Compiled under the orders of Government 

 by Eobert Sewell. Madras: E. Keys, 1884. 



I Archa?ological Survey of Southern India, Vol, IV. — Tamil and Sanskrit 

 inscriptions, with some notes on village antiquities, collected chiefly in the south of the 

 Madras Presidency. By James Burgess. With translations by S. M. ISTatesa Sastri, 

 Pandit. Madras : E. Keys, 1886. 



% South Indian inscriptions, Tamil and Sanskrit, edited and translated by E. Hultzsch, 

 Ph.D., Government Epigraphist, Arehajological Survey ,of Southern India. Madras 

 (Higginbotham & Co.), 1890. 



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