1                                     PREFACE.

Arabic manuscript, howsoever faulty it may be. The
reader will perhaps here and there derive some advan¬
tage from comparing the index of the edition of the
Arabic original. The second index contains names of
persons and places, &c., mostly of non-Indian origin.

It was the Committee of the Oriental Translation
Fund, consisting at the time of Osmond de Beauvoir
Priaulx, Edward Thomas, James Fergusson, Eeinhold
Eost, and Theodore Goldstiicker, who first proposed to
me to translate the 'IvSlko.. Thomas, Goldstiicker, and
Fergusson are beyond the reach of human words, but
to 0. de Beauvoir Priaulx, Esq., and to Dr. Eost, I desire
to express my sincerest gratitude for the generous help
and the untiring interest which they have always ac¬
corded to me, though so many years have rolled on since
I first pledged to them my word. Lastly, Her Majesty's
India Office has extended its patronage from the edition
of the Arabic original also to this edition of the work in
an English garb.

Of the works of my predecessors, the famous publica¬
tion of Eeinaud, the Mdmoire giographique, historique et
scientifque sur I'lnde, Paris, 1849, has been most useful
to me. Cf. on this and the labours of my other pre¬
decessors § 2 of the preface to the edition of the Arabic
original.

The Sanskrit alphabet has been transliterated in the
following way :—a, a, i, i, u, lX—ri, ai, au—k, kh, g, gh,
n—c, ch,j,jh, n—t, th, d, dh, n—t, th, d, dh, n—p, ph,
b, hh, m—y, r, I, v—s, sh, s, h.

EDWAED SACHAU.

Beelin, August 4, 1888.