GENERAL INDEX TO THE REPORTS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA, VOLUMES I TO XXIII

The author had made an elaborate attempt to compile the reports of the ASI an authentic manner. Everyone who has had occasion to consult the Reports, published under the superintendent of Major General Sir A Cunningham, must have felt the want of a general index to the long series of 23 volumes. It contains 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 theses indices are, with two exceptions, extremely meagre, and of very little service. The compiler undertook the task of compiling an adequate general index, and have now completed it to the best of his ability. No index of reasonable size could give references to every proper name mentioned, or every topic discussed in the Reports but the compiler has endeavoured, so far as his limited knowledge of Archaeology would permit, to include in his index, every name or subject which an archaeologist would be likely to look for, and to give each entry in the form of or forms most likely to be convenient. Names in dynastic lists about which nothing is known, except their occurrences in such lists will not usually he found in the index. They must be looked for by means of the references to the dynasties concerned. Some of the more headings such as that of coins bring together in a compendious form, a large number of facts which were of little interest of value when scattered through 23 volumes. The classification of entries under such headings has cost him much thought and labour, which will, it is hoped, by justified by the result. This book is immensely good for researchers.