Sanskrit Documents (Being Sanskrit Letters and other Documents Preserved in the Original Collection at the National Archives of India)

The records of the East India Company were naturally THE kept in English. The Indian princes, however, in the early days at least, preferred to use Persian, the French of the east, in their diplomatic correspondence. The great bulk of the official archives at New Delhi therefore consists of English records and the Persian Correspondence comes next both in volume and in importance. But there are records in other languages of the cast, which though much less voluminous, do not lack either in historical interest or academic value. They have hitherto received but little notice and less attention. Forrestl imited his studies to English records only and his example was emulated by his successors, Hill and Wilson. Ross, well-versed in the lores of modern and medieval Iran, turned his attention to the huge mass of Persian Correspondence hitherto ignored by its legal custodians and arranged for the preparation of Calendars seven volumes of which have already seen light and two more are awaiting publication. Of records in other oriental or Indian tongues the public at large had hardly any knowledge. A preliminary scrutiny in 1939 left no doubt about their cultural value and the Government of India authorized their Keeper of Records (now Director of Archives) to get them published through private agencies. The learned institutions all over the country readily responded to his appeal and the first volume of the new series was published by the Calcutta University in 1942 under the honorary editorship of Government of India's Keeper of Records. The Universities of Allahabad, Annamalai and Delhi, the Bharat Itihas Samshodhak Mandal of Poona and the Government of Kotah came forward with proposals of editing and publishing at their own expenses volumes of Hindi, Tamil, Persian and Marathi news letters and official papers and the newly organised Ganganatha Jha Research Institute naturally interested itself in the publication of the Sanskrit papers. Some of these papers first appeared in the Institute's Journal and evoked no little interest among the orientalists in this country and abroad. It was decided that the main responsibility of preparing the text, the English translation, the English introduction and notes should rest with the Director of Archives while Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. Umesha Mishra should add an introduction in Sanskrit. In spite of the best efforts of the editors the publication has been long held over due to circumstances over which neither of them had any control. It is well known that papers were not easy to get and printing presses had more work than they could handle. But for the personal efforts of Mahamahopadhyaya Umesha Mishra the publication of this small collection of Sanskrit letters and legal papers might have been still further delayed.

**Contents and Sample Pages**