Indo-Aryans: Contributions Towards The Elucidation Of Their Ancient And Mediaeval History

The essays comprised in these two volumes were written at different times, under different circumstances, to meet particular exigencies, without any idea of their ever forming a connected work. Enquiries, however, are often made for copies of some of them, but most of the publications in which they first appeared are now out of print, and cannot be obtained. In printing the essays in their present collected form, the immediate object, therefore, is to make them easily accessible. It is believed also that as contributions towards the elucidation of the ancient and mediaeval history of the Indo-Aryans, a subject to which the attention of the learned in Europe is now so earnestly directed, they will prove of some use. Although much written upon of late, the subject is yet very far from being exhausted. And, , to quote the language of Milton, “No man, who hath tasted of learning but will confess the many ways of profiting by those, who, not contented with stale receipts, are able to manage and set forth new positions to the world and, were they but as the dust and cinders of our feet, so long, as in that notion, they may yet serve to polish and brighten the armoury of truth, even for that respect, they were not utterly to be cast away. The subject of the book is very illuminating and delicate. There is no statement in the book to which exception may justly be taken. The book is good for common readers.