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xxiv
PREFACE
official correspondence concerning the publication during the past ten years with the Oxford University Press, who, incidentally, have been anxious to bring out a second edition of the two earlier volumes since the first year of their publication.
My gratitude is due to Rai Bahadur Dayaram Sahni, M.A., the present Director General of Archaeology, for his scholarly interest in the work and his friendly appreciation during the past ten years ; and to Mr. K. N. Dikshit. M.A., the then Deputy Director General of Archaeology, who used to come to my hotel at Simla and spent hours in discussing various obstinate passages that baffled repeated aitempts at their interpretation.
For scholarly interest, friendly sympathy, encouraging appreciation and various kinds of assistance from time to time I am grateful to my colleagues Dr. Babu Ram Saksena, M.A., D.LITT., Dr. Umesh Misra, M.A., D:LITT., Pandit Ketresh Chandra Chattopadhyaya, M.A., Pandit Raghubar Mithulal Shastri, M.A., M.O.L., and Miss Mathura Narain Herlekar, M.A.
Not only for general encouragement, but also for valuable sugges. tions and constructive criticism of the earlier volumes, I am grateful to the reviewers whose opinions are quoted at the end of volume IV.
To Mr. D. W. Crighton, Superintendent, Printing and Stationery, and to his compositors and readers I desire to express my gratitude for the painstaking care and long forbearance and for their ever sympathetic and kind treatment towards me. For his personal interest in the work and for many useful suggestions and improvements I am further indebted to Mr. Crighton who readily took the trouble of revising this Preface.
P. K. ACHARYA. UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD :
February 6, 1933.
