गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; PREFACE. 3
the date of Mihirakula,—who, as we learn from the writings of the Chinese pilgrim
Hiuen Tsiang, played a most leading and important part in early Indian history,—to furnish
the means of adjusting the chronology, before and after him, of the early history of Kaśmîr,
as recorded in the Râjataramgiṇî, and also of testing the accuracy of the Chinese accounts
of the same early period.
The collection of the required materials having been at length completed, the next
step was the preparation of the photo-lithographic facsimile Plates. And this was one of
the most special divisions of the work. My object throughout has been, to place before
my readers, in these Plates, as good substitutes, as can possibly be provided, for the ori-
ginal records; in order that they may be in a position to satisfy themselves as to the
correctness or otherwise of my readings, and, on any doubtful points, to adopt any im-
provements which future researches may indicate. Any lithographs prepared from hand-
tracings, eye-copies, or any similar materials, or even from mechanical impressions subse-
quently worked up by hand, are, of course, of absolutely no value whatever for critical pur-
poses; for the reason that, no matter what amount of personal learning, skill, and care, may
be brought to the work, the results are, not facsimiles of the original records as they really
stand, but only facsimiles of those records as they have presented themselves to the eye of
the individual reader of them; and, as long as such pseudo-facsimiles are the only substi-
tutes available, so long there cannot cease to be varieties of opinion, and doubts and specu-
lation, as to what the readings might be found to be, if the originals could be examined
again in situ. To avoid anything of this kind, such of the ink-impressions as have been
prepared under my own direction, i.e. all save eleven or twelve in the whole series, have
been made with the most particular care, by purely mechanical means, by a man whom I
have for a long time employed on such work, and who has attained considerable proficiency
in it. And, by special sanction, the reproduction of them was made over to the well-
known Photo-lithographic Establishment of Mr. W. Griggs, at Peckham, in which a good
deal of work of the same kind had been previously turned out; and I was allowed to
proceed to England, in order to superintend this part of the work in person. My own
share here has simply been to see that the photo-lithographic reproduction was a faithful
and mechanical process throughout; but this, of course, entailed the minute examina-
tion of two or three Proofs of each Plate, up to the final printing, in order to guard against
the occasional distortion and blocking-up of letters, which is always liable to occur in
reproducing such materials; and anyone, who has had practical experience, will know
that careful supervision of such work takes up no little time. The results, however, have
fully compensated for all the time and trouble that were spent in attaining them. And,
with the valuable co-operation given by Mr. Griggs himself, through the personal interest
which he takes in the reproduction of inscriptions, I am now able to submit to my readers
a series of as absolutely faithful reduced facsimiles, as could possibly be prepared, of the
original inscriptions and all their surroundings.

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