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SEARCH OF HINDI MANUSCRIPTS.
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12. Some aspects of search, other than literary.-Up till now the manuscripts have been mostly dealt with from one point of view, viz., as belles letters, but they present other aspects one of which has, for instance, been quoted in respect of Bādbāh Salim in a foregoing paragraph.
Similarly the poet Dharmadāsa (no. 48) in his. Mahā. bhārata incidentally mentions the king's year 80 corresponding with Samvat 1711 or 1654 A.D. This evidently refers to Akbar's Ilāhi era, which apparently continued to be used long after his death.
A Jaina Kavi Banārasidāsa made a note of the prevalence of plague in the year 1616, A.D. as follows :
इस ही समय ईति विस्तरी । परी आगरे पहली मरी । जहां तहां सब भागे लोग । परगट भया गांठ का रोग । निकसै गांठ मरै छिन मांहि । काहू को बसाय कछु नाहिं । .
चूहे मरे वैद्य मर जाहिं । भय से लोग अन्न नहिं खांहि । That is to say, the disease of buboes made its appearance. first in Āgrā. People began to die instantaneously, so did the rats and physicians. People did not take their food through fear and ran away from their homes. Such scraps of historical data gleaned out from contemporary writers would prvive very valuable, but if this would be too much to expect from a search Superintendent, an analysis of colophons and dates found on the records would not at any rate involve much trouble.
13. The appendices.-This report contains four appendices the first of which gives detailed notices of authors in alphabetical order. Appendix II gives extracts from their works together with prescribed information as to size, substance, appearance, character, place of deposit, etc. Following in the wake of previous reports similar information in respect of manuscripts whose authors remain unknown is given in
