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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS: PREFACE. 5
too thankful for any suggestions that may be made to me, with a view to improvements in
any future edition.
A serious obstacle, hitherto, in the prosecution of epigraphical researches, has been
the want of full and systematic indexes. To the Index of the present volume, special
attention has been given; in order that it shall include an easy reference to anything
in this series of inscriptions that can bear on any of the lines of research connected with
epigraphy. And, to this point, I trust that full attention will be paid, in future volumes of
this series by other hands.
The original sanction for this volume, limited by the heavy cost of the Plates, was for
two hundred and fifty copies. Towards the end of my work, however, many gratifying
intimations came from England, the Continent, and India, that the book was likely to be
far more popular, and a far more general subject of study, than even I myself had ever
anticipated. Under these circumstances, there has now been printed an additional issue
of two hundred and fifty copies, without Plates, and thus procurable at a moderate price.
The copies of this issue, of course, contain everything that is essential for general readers.
And the complete copy, with Plates, in the nearest Public Library, Society's Rooms, or
College, will always furnish special students with the means of prosecuting inquiries on
particular points of interpretation of the original texts.
As I have indicated above, the volume does not appear in quite the form in which it
was originally prepared for the Press. It will not be thoroughly complete, without the
Historical Chapters that should form the second part of it. These however could not
be even drafted to any considerable extent, until the Texts and Translations were
all in print, in order to facilitate constant reference and quotation. And the writing
of the Historical Chapters will entail so enormous an amount of miscellaneous reading and
annotation, for the purpose of tracing to their origin, in order to explain and completely
refute, all the erroneous theories, in every connected line of inquiry, which have been
started during the last fifty years in order to support any epoch rather than the correct
one, that, having now again to give all my principal attention and energy to the ordinary
duties of official life in the Revenue Department, I doubt much whether those chapters
will ever be written by me. It has, in fact, been difficult enough for me to finish, to my
satisfaction, even the present part of the volume. I have, therefore, taken advantage of
the delay in printing, to incorporate in this part of the volume a variety of notes and
remarks which I should have preferred keeping back for the Historical Chapters. They
will, however, I think, be found to be not altogether misplaced; even if I may subsequently
have to modify the views expressed in some of them.
Another point in which the delay in publication has been turned to even greater
dvantage, is in respect of the valuable matter which I have been able to include in
the Introduction through the kind co-operation of Mr. Shankar Balkrishna Dikshit, of