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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH.
PREFATORY.
tions received from all parts of India, it would appear that such a journal as the Indian Antiquary was much wanted; and if it is considered that almost every branch of scientific research possesses, not merely the transactions of societies specially devoted to its culture, but also weekly, monthly, and quarterly journals, publishing all sorts of information, for all classes of readers; it is surely not too much to expect that Indian Research should be of sufficient interest to Europeans resident in India, or interested in it and to intelligent and educated natives of the country, to support one journal devoted to its promotion. The scope of this will be as wide as possible addressing the general reader with information on Manners and Customs, Arts, Mythology, Feasts, Festivals and Rites, Antiquities and History, in which every one, in any way connected with the country, ought to feel an intelligent interest,-and, at the same time, it is intended to be a medium of communication between Archæologists in the East and the West. Its Correspondence columns will afford ample opportunity for the amicable discussion of many questions, on which more information is yet required before any fixed opinion can be formed, and for propounding Queries on all matters fairly within the domain of Oriental Research. By presenting its readers with abstracts of the most recent researches of savans in India, Europe and America, and by its translations from German, French, and other European languages -it will make fully accessible to the many Native
Scholars, unacquainted with these languages, the latest results arrived at by the greatest continental scholars. It will be the aim of the Indian Antiquary to supplement the Journals of the various Asiatic Societies by directing the attention of its readers to the best articles in each, and supplying a variety of such articles, notes, and memoranda as never find their way to the pages of these publications.
Among the many subjects we wish and hope to see discussed, we may enumerate-Architectural and other Lithic remains-of the extent and variety of which, in India, the world is only beginning to form a vague idea. And as attention has been specially directed to this branch of late years, and Government has at last very properly responde to the demand for an Archeological Survey, we may hope to aid it by the early publication of all the information respecting its progress and discoveries communicated tp us by its officers, and aid it by information respecting localities and remains as yet but imperfectly known. Then there are old Native Engineering works of no small interest-of which, scarcely one satisfactory account of a single work has yet appeared in type. Local legends and Folklore, Proverbs and Songs, are subjects at every one's door who can speak a vernacular tongue, and, besides their intrinsic interest, they often shed a most instructive light on the habits of thought of the people. When ready to go to press, we have had the pleasure of receiving a contribution to this department that we feel sure all our readere will welcome with delight.
