PREFACE
I have had also to study MSS. of unpublished works, both Sanskrit and Bengali, in the original. Much labour was involved in the search for these Sanskrit MSS., especially those which belong to the class of Śilpa Śastras, a good number of which I found in the famous Tanjore Palace Library (containing some 18,000 Sanskrit works), in the Adiyar Library, Madras, and in the possession of some old Indian artists at Kumbakonam. I have also derived from local tradition and old folk-lore some very valuable materials for the history of the once famous port of Gaur, the old capital of Bengal.
Of the MSS. used, those specially noticeable are the Yuktikalpataru, and the Arthaśāstra of Kautilya which has been recently published. These two important and interesting, but hitherto unknown and unutilized, Sanskrit works have great value as sources of economic history. The former gives an account of ancient Indian shipbuilding, the like of which cannot perhaps be found elsewhere in the entire range of Sanskrit literature, while the latter throws some new light on the economic condition of Maurya India which will, I trust, materially advance our knowledge of that brilliant period of Indian history. I may also refer in this connection to the Sanskrit work Bodhisattvāvadāna Kalpalatā of Kshemendra, which is being published under the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. This
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