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PREFACE.
111
authors, have arisen. Up till now the dates were nover examined in details and stress was laid on the years rightly or wrongly quoted in the manuscripts. On this occasion a stricter method of verification has been employed, and calculations made to find out whether in cases where week days are mentioned, the tithis fell on those days. In this connexion the Indian Ephemeris by Diwan Bahadur Swamikannu Pillai has beon of great help.
According to rough calculation over 4,000 manuscripts belonging to the period prior to 1850 written by more than 1500 authors have been yet examined. The information collected in respect of the authors and their works has inspired men with a critical turn of mind to write the History of Hindi litorature. At any rate two books of this class may be considered to be the direct outcome of the encouragement given by the United Provinces Government to a theme, which was restricted only to classical languages like the Sanskrit. The first of these is a voluminous work by the Misra Bandhus, who used the search information to the best advantage in their Vinoda and the other is an English work by Mr. F. E. Keay contributed by him to the Heritage of India series. This has been followed by Mr. E. Greaves' Sketch of Hindi literature which deals with the subject in the light of his wide study of Hindi literature. The fororunnor of all these was a Hindi work named Siva Simha Saroja followed by Sir Goorgo Grierson's Modern vernacular literature of Hindustan and a careful reader would easily find out the improvement which the goarch work has effected in the spade work of the individual enthusiasts.
HIRA LAL. KATNI-MURWARA: The 18th May, 1923.
