ASI General Index to the Reports of The Archaeological Survey of India (Volume I to XXIII)

D VERY one who has had occasion to consult the Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India, published under the superintendence of MajorGeneral Sir A. Cunningham, must have felt the want of a General Index to the long series of twenty-three volumes. The Reports contain a vast mass of valuable information, but it is presented in such an undigested form that much of it is practically inaccessible. Each volume is certainly provided with an Index, but these Indices are, with two exceptions, extremely meagre, and of very little service. With the approval of General Cunningham I undertook the task of compiling an 'adequate General Index; and have now completed it to the best of my ability.

I cannot hope that my work will be regarded as perfect, but there can be no doubt that it will add greatly to the value of the Reports; and I trust that, in consideration of the assistance it will render to all students of Indian Archæ. ology, its faults may be forgiven.

No Index of reasonable size could give references to every proper name mentioned, or every topic discussed in the Reports, but I have endeavoured, so far as my limited knowledge of Archæology would permit, to include in my Index every name or subject which an archæologist would be likely to look for, and to give each entry in the form or forms most likely to be convenient. Names in dynastic lists about which nothing is known, except their occurrence in such lists, will not usually be found in the Index. They must be looked for by means of the references to the dynasties concerned.

Some of the more complex headings, such as that of Coins, bring together in a compendious form a very large number of facts which were of little interest or value when scattered through twenty-three volumes. The classification of the entries under such headings has cost me much thought and labour, which will, it is hoped, be justified by the result.

The crude and unscientific speculations of General Cunningham's assistants, which waste so much space in several volumes of the Reports, have been passed over very lightly, and the Index gives few indications of their existence.

The spelling of proper names in the Reports is rather arbitrary and lax, and I have necessarily been compelled to follow it. Alternative spellings will, how ever, be found very often in the Index, and I do not think there will be any difficulty in tracing names.

I have not attempted to distinguish the various letters of closely similar sound by elaborate diacritical marks, as is done in the pages of the Indian Antiquary. So far as the text with which I was dealing would permit, the spelling of proper names is in accordance with the practice followed for some years past in official publications of the Indian Government. A long vowel is marked by an accent, unaccented a is pronounced as in the word America, and all other vowels as in Italian.

One of the most serious defects in the Reports is the omission in general to state the civil territorial division of the country in which the place under discussion is situate. The bewildered reader is, for instance, told that an obscure mound of ruins named Atranjí-Kherá is 4 miles south of Karsána, 8 miles to the north of Eyta (sic), 15 miles to the south of Soron, and 43 miles to the northwest of Sankisa. It is not easy from such a description to make out where Atranjí-Khera is, or to discover any mention of it that may exist in other books or official records. The mound is really in the Etá District of the North-Western Provinces, and the moment this information is afforded anything that may exist on record about the place is readily traceable.

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