PREFACE
work also throws light on some aspects of economic life in the Maurya epoch.
I have also tried to discover and gather all the evidence derivable from archaeology. The many representations of ships and boats, and of scenes of naval activity, that are furnished by old Indian art have been brought together and adduced as evidence indicating Indian maritime enterprise. Some of these representations I have myself discovered in the course of my travels, and these have not, I think, been previously published. To the kindness of some of my artist friends I owe the sketches of several representations of ships and boats that occur in old Indian sculpture and painting, such as those of Ajantā, and also on old Indian coins.
My thanks are due to Messrs. Bejoy Kumar Sarkar and Narendranath Sen Gupta, my old pupils at the Bengal National College, Calcutta, and now students of the Harvard University, U.S.A., for their kind assistance; and also to Mr. Ramananda Chatterji, M.A., editor of the Modern Review, for the courtesy of his permission to reprint those portions of my work which appeared in his Review. Nor must I omit to express my obligation to my friend Mr. Benoy Kumar Sarkar, M.A., Lecturer, Bengal National College, Calcutta, whose constant help in manifold ways it is alike my pleasure and duty to gratefully acknowledge.
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