________________ ( xvi) Shri S. M. Shafiuddin (till recently Press Secretary to the Governor) and Shri Panchapan Jha (Under-Secretary to the Governor) in many ways in the matter of publication. We are thankful to all of them. Thanks are also due to Sbri Laliteshwar Prasad Shahi (Member of Parliament and a Trustee of the Vaisali Sangha) and Shri Jagannath Prasad Sah of Lalganj (the Executive Secretary of the Sangha and another Trustee of this organisation) who have helped us in some way or the other in the collection of materials for the present edition. It was Shri Laliteshwar Prasad Shahi who took the laudable step for preserving the valuable materials obtained in the shape of learned addresses at the appual Festivals by publishing in 1960 a book entitled Vaisali-Mahima that inter alia collects speeches delivered at Vaigali so far. Shri Jagannath Prasad Sab is the custodian of the Sangha archives in the real sense of the term and we have received most of the printed individual addresses through his courtesies. The collection of materials such as reference books and several photographs including those of important antiquities of Vaisali has been facilitated by Dr. Sita Ram Roy, Director of Archaeology and Museums, Bihar; Shri Tara Sharan Sinha, Director, Bihar State Archives and Dr. Hari Kishore Prasad, Director, Patna Museum, Patna. Besides these Government agencies, we have got help from Shri Nagendra Prasad Singh (ex-M.L.A.) of village Vaisali in the collection of materials including some coloured photographs obtained through the good offices of Shri Mikinori Narimatsu of Japan. They, too, deserve our thanks.. The decision of bringing out a fresh edition of the VaisaliAbhinandana-Grantha (Homage to Vaisali) was taken by the Research Institute of Prakrit, Jaipology and Ahimsa when Dr. Nagendra Prasad was its Director. His successor in office Dr. Ram Prakash Poddar took keen interest in its publication and quite a good part was printed during his time. The present Director Dr. Deva Narayan Sharma maintained the spirit and brought it to a successful completion. Envisaging the huge work-load caused by the preparation of fresh materials for the Volume, collection of photographs including coloured ones, and the work of coordination which becomes inevitable in the last phase of any big undertaking, the Chairman of the General Council of the Institute placed Shri Yugal Kiskore Mishra, Lecturer, on deputation under the Editor of the Volume from July 1984. We are happy to note that Shri Mishra gave us ungrudging and most sincere help on all fronts; and we are now in a position to say that had he not been spared for this volume, the work would not have been ready by this time in any way. Thapking them, however, would be merely a matter of formality because they served not only the cause of Vaisali but also their Institute itself.
