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Publisher's Note.
Almost immediately since the time that my longcontinued efforts in the direction of getting a reliable and comprehensive Ardha-Māgadhi Dictionary compiled by competent authorities on the subject, began to take a practical and tangible shape, my health began to fail and I fell a victim to a malady which is peculiarly antagonistic to mental work. Burning with an ardent desire on the one hand to realise an ideal which I had made one of the supreme aims of my life and deprived on the other, of the very instrument which led to its accomplishment, I continued to work with as much energy as I could command, throwing a great deal of my burden and responsibility upon the shoulders of my son Sardarmal. A time came at last, however, when it became absolutely imperative upon me to shift the whole burden upon him and if I am to judge from the results so far achieved, I feel I have every reason to hope that the work will be successfully brought to completion under his care and management. Very few of those persons not actually engaged in a task similar to this, can have an idea of the demand that it makes upon the energy and mental resources of its organizers. Endless correspondence, touring, watchful and diligent supervision of the work as it progressed, from the literary standpoint of accuracy and from the artistic standpoint of external attractiveness--these were and still are the demands to which he has proved himself equal. And I think it is a part of my sacred duty to acknowledge cheerfully the debt I owe to him in this connection. But for the fervour and energy with which my son devoted himself to the work which I was compelled to give up, the Ardha-Māgadhi Dictionary, at least in its present shape, would have taken an indefinitely long time to see the light of the day.
My son, Sardarmal has given an account of the vicissitudes through which my earlier efforts at the compilation of an Ardha
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