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I dedicated the Institute to the Nation on the 30th November 1917. The fuller investigation of the many ever-opening problems of the nascent science, which includes both Life and Non-Life, are among the main purposes of the Institute. In adding a large auditorium, I have sought permanently to associate the advancement of knowledge with the widest possible civic and public diffusion of it; and this without any academic limitations, henceforth to all races and languages, to both men and women alike, and for all time coming.

It is my further wish that, as far as the limited accommodation would permit, the facilities of this Institute should be available to workers from all countries. In this I am attempting to carry out the traditions of my country, which, so far back as twenty-five centuries ago, welcomed all scholars from different parts of the world within the precincts of its ancient seats of learning, at Nalanda and at Taxilla.

The present time may be regarded as inopportune for any new undertaking, when a great tragedy is hanging

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