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Honourable President, Honourable Vicechencellor, Distinguished Delegates and Friends.
To start with I heartily thank the Folklore Congress of India, its Executive Committee and its Hon. Secretary for accepting Saurashtra University's invitation to hold the Fifteenth Conference in Gujarat. We considenr it as a worthy tribute to the memory of our late illustrious litterateur and pioneer, incomparable folklorist Jhanverchand Maghani, whose birth Centenary is being celebrated during the current year. I consider it a great and unique honour for me to have been invited to deliver the inaugural address to the Conference. The Indian Folklore Congress is quite well-known as an august institution with a long glorious history, A large number of devoted scholars have made many valuable contributions to its deliberations over years. In view of my questionable worthiness for this honour, I was hesitant when Dr. Balvant Jani met me with the proposal, but finally I succumbed to the temptation persuading myself that this will afford me a coveted opportunity to meet personally some leading Indian Folklorists and thereby gain from their views and experiences.
The working field being immeasurably vast and the number of devoted and knowledgable workers being quite incommensurate to the huge tasks
