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A SA
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सत्यं शिवं सुन्दरम
FOREWORD
It gives me very great pleasure in writing this 'Foreword' to the First Volume of the “Chronology of Gujarat”, which is edited by Dr. Majmudar. The publication of this volume would not have been possible but for the untiring zeal and labour of Dr. Majmudar, assisted by a band of keen scholars like Dr. Jani, Prof. Kapadia, Shri A. Pandya and Dr. Shastri.
Dr. Majmudar, as he acknowledges in his 'Preface', was, from time to time, guided by Dr. Sankalia and Dr. Subbarao, the Head of the Archaeology Department of the M. S. University of Baroda. Dr. Sandesara and Dr. U. P. Shah of the Oriental Institute of the University of Baroda, and Dr. R. N. Mehta of the Archaeological Department of the University, also gave Dr. Majmudar the benefit of their great erudition and scholarship.
This work was started in 1954. It took nearly four to five years in collecting the necessary data. The data, collected by Dr. Majmudar and his colleagues on the Editorial Board, was scrutinized by Dr. Sankalia and Dr. Subbarao. The material in its final form was ready only last year and is now published.
It is needless for me to emphasise the importance of this publication. The chronological information collected in this way provides an important framework in which subsequent scholars can build up the history of Gujarat.
As Dr. Majmudar says in his . Preface', that with the exception of the Historical Introduction to the Bombay Gazetteer Vol. I, edited by Mr. Cambell, no satisfactory and continuous history of Gujarat has so far been written. There have been some excellent works on specific Periods of the history of Gujarat ; but no continuous history of Gujarat from the earliest times till today has yet been written. This chronological framework will be of great service to a future historian of the history of Gujarat.
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