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The request made to me by Mr. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar that I should prefix to his volume of collected essays on the literary and political history of Southern India, a few words of introduction met with ready acceptance, because nothing gives me greater pleasure than to watch the steady progress made by Indian-born students in the investigation of the ancient history of their country. It would be easy to name many recent Indian authors who have made important and solid contributions to accurate knowledge of the early history of India. Among such writers, Mr. Krishnaswami Aiyangar holds an honourable place and if he had leisure greater than that which official duties permit, he might, perhaps, produce that Early History of Southern India which is so much wanted and can be written only by a scholar familiar with the country and one or more of the Dravidian vernaculars. The collection of papers now offered to the public does not profess to be such a history. It is simply a reissue of essays printed on various occasions at different times, and in some cases now subjected to slight revision. A volume of the kind which is rather materials for history than history itself, necessarily suffers from unavoidable overlapping and repetition, and from a lack of unity. But notwithstanding the defects inherent in an assemblage of detached essays