General Index to Names and Subject Matter

Author(s): M Winternitz
Publisher: Oxford

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE
BY THE AUTHOR
Habent sua fata libelli—not only after they have been published, but sometimes even before they are printed. It was in the spring of 1894 that the late Professor Max Müller first suggested to me that I should compile a General Index of the names and subject-matter for the complete series of the Sacred Books of the East. Such an Index, he thought, would be a great help to all students of the Sacred Books of the East, and of the greatest value for the study of the history of religions. The matter was frequently discussed between us, and we both agreed that if the Index was to be of any use it would have to be, not a bare list of names and important words, with strings of references which no one would have the patience to read through, but an analytical Index with extracts and even verbal quotations, from which the student, with the least possible trouble, might see to which volume and page he had to refer for any information he might want. It was many weeks before the plan took any definite shape : in June, 1894, I laid my proposal of preparing the Index before the Delegates of the University Press, who were from the beginning favourably inclined to it. But as I had to work out a specimen from which the scale and the plan of the Index could be seen more definitely, it was not until March, 1895, that the Delegates could give their final sanction to the work.
Though some of the volumes of the series were still unpublished in 1895—vol. xliv appeared in 1900, and vol. xlviii not until 1904-it was then thought possible to finish the Index volume within two years. When I set to work, and began reading through volume after volume, making notes and extracts for the Index, I certainly hoped that Professor Max Müller would live to see it finished. But, alas, Fate had destined otherwise. Only too soon I found that I had entirely miscalculated the time and labour involved in
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