PREFACE, 
XI 
of History, so silent in Sanskrit literature, lias been assi¬ 
duously cultivated by these authors, and we have still 
extant historical works founded on materials which were 
written so far back as the ninth century. I therefore ven¬ 
ture to put forward claims for attention not only from those 
scholars who have hitherto devoted themselves to Prakrit 
literature, but also from those who love to wander amid 
the intricacies of the Nmadha , or to apply themselves to 
the copper-plate grants of The Indian Antiquary. 
There is another claim which I would mention, and 
that is the intrinsic merit of the Neo-Gaudian literature. 
After all that is said, the later Sanskrit and the Prakrit 
poems are but artificial productions, written in the closet 
by learned men for learned men; but the Neo-Gaudian poets 
wrote for unsparing critics,—the people. Many of them 
studied nature and wrote what they saw. They found 
4 tongues in trees,’ and as they interpreted what they heard 
successfully or not, so was their popularity great or small, 
and so their works lived after them or not. Several works 
exist whose authors’ names we do not even know; but 
they have remained living voices in the people’s hearts, 
because they appealed to the sense of the true and of the 
beautiful. 1 
It is hoped that the three indexes will be found useful. 
Considerable trouble has been expended in order to make 
them as accurate as possible. 
* 
GEORGE A. GRIERSON. 
1 I refer to the folk epics, bard masas (songs of the seasons), Jeajaris, and 
other songs current throughout India which are referred to above. 
