Indian Antiquary Vol 49

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 81

MAY, 1920)
VINCENT AQUILA SMITH
77
VINCENT AQUILA SMITH.
BY SIR RICHARD TEMPLE. PY the death of Dr. V. A. Smith, C.I.E., D. Litt., I.C.S., the Indian Antiquary has D lost a valued contributor of more than forty years standing and India itself an eminent student of her history and antiquities. It is fortunate, indeed, that he was spared to complete his invaluable Oxford History of India, a work of the first importance for all who wish to be introduced to an accurate knowledge of the story of that vast country in its many aspects.
His great attainments made it possible for him to take a leading part in the research which led up to his Early History of India from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, first published in 1904. Of this it has been truly said that it “sifted a vast quantity of evidence scattered in many monographs and periodicals and fashioned it into a connected and sane history. It conferred an immense boon on all interested in ancient India, and particularly on scholars, whose special researches made it difficult for them to assess all the information amassed by others. It became authoritative at once, for the want of such a compilation had been sadly felt. The third edition, published in 1914 with careful revision and large additions, will hold its position for many years to come."
Among other important works and contributions to a great number of Journals, he made a Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum at Calcutta in 1906, and writing for Indian students, he compiled an Oxford History of England in 1912. He did not confine himself to political and social history, for in 1911 he produced his History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, a work of remarkable usefulness. His Life of Akbar the Great Mogul has. become very popular as a notable and characteristic account of the great Emperor.
Vincent Smith's connection with the Indian Antiquary dates from 1878, commencing with a query on Saka and Samvat Dates, and since 1885, when this Journal passed into the hands of the late Dr. J. F. Fleet and myself, he was a constant contributor to its pages, his notes and papers being naturally concerned with the details of research. He also constantly favoured this periodical with many valuable notices of books and a number of miscellaneous notes on a great variety of subjects connected with things Indian. His contributions covered his favourite studies in history, chronology, epigraphy, numismatics, art and architecture.
His papers were always illuminating and suggestive, even if at times controversial, and in him the world of students has lost & valiant pioneer in many lines of thought and research, and myself an old and valued friend and coadjutor.
Vincent Smith's principal contributions to the Indian Antiquary. 1878. Vol. VII. Query. Saka and Saṁvat Dates. 1885. Vol. XIV. Note in Miscellanea. The Coins of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty. 1886. Vol. XV. A note on the Date of Mihirakula. 1889. Vol. XVIII. A Dated Græco-Buddhist Soulpture. 1896. Vol. XXV. Query as to a List of Mudras. 1902. Vol. XXXI. The Inscriptions of Mahanaman at Bodh Gayê.
Revised Chronology of the Early or Imperial Gupta Dynasty.