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

4 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
This part of the work was finished in December, 1885. I then returned to India, to
complete the volume; and the Texts and Translations were ready for the Press at the end of
May, 1886; though not quite in the same form throughout, in which they now appear. It
was, however, then found that a number of accented types had to be prepared specially for
this volume; and, owing to this and other causes, the first proofs were not fairly in hand
till the following November. That they were so far started then, and that the work has
progressed so quickly since then, is due to the friendly and earnest personal co-operation
of Messrs. E. J. Dean and A. Sanderson, the Superintendent and Deputy-Superintendent
of Government Printing, India, in whose office the volume has been printed; and I think I
may fairly say that the volume gives a most excellent specimen of the style in which, under
intelligent direction, the printing of large and important books can be done in India. I would
also acknowledge here much assistance given by my friend, Mr. W. Rees Philipps, in read-
ing the final proofs; as, since the commencement of the printing, I have never been less than
five days distant from the Press by post, and have been part of the time in England, the
assistance given by him on the spot, in Calcutta, has been most valuable in saving time.
The printing of the Texts and Translations was completed in July, 1887. And the delay
since then is due to the large amount of important matter, which, while they were being
taken through the Press, I found myself in a position to include in the Introduction.
It will doubtless be remarked that, in the notes to my Texts, I have but seldom re-
ferred to the readings given in previously published versions of the same inscriptions. It
soon became apparent to me that, to make any such references throughout, would increase
the bulk of the book to at least twice what it now is, and encumber the pages of it with
hundreds of footnotes of not the slightest practical value. I therefore abandoned, almost
at starting, any idea of such a course; considering that the point was one which could
interest only a very limited class of readers, and that, by giving in the introduction to
each Text every reference that I could find to previous versions of it by other hands, I
should afford those few special readers every facility for making any comparisons that
might be necessary; and I have confined myself to noting previous mislections, only when
they have had a bearing upon some historical name or other point of special importance.
I offer my present versions of the Texts, not as absolutely final ones throughout, but as
the most reliable ones that have as yet been produced; and as rendering possible now, for
the first time, a thoroughly critical start in all the lines of research connected with the
epigraphical materials of the period with which I have dealt. To take one special line
as an instance,—it is only now that we are beginning to know properly the correct pro-
cesses by which Hindu dates may be converted into their English equivalents. Much, in
connection with this, still remains to be made known. And, as our knowledge advances,
many improvements will undoubtedly be made in the interpretation, for instance, of
numerical symbols, and of the other particular details of recorded dates. As an apposite
instance, I would refer to note 2 on page 274. In this line, as in any other, I shall be only