Saivism, and Minor Religions" made the taking up of the subject more urgently necessary. In a review of the work in the Journal cf the Mythic Society, Bangalore, I indicated that I would work up the subject so as to bring to bear upon the question all the light that may be got from sources recently made available. I took advantage of the occasion offered by the First Oriental Conference at Poona, over which Sir R. G. Bhandarkar himself was to have presided but was unfortunately prevented from doing so by illness at the time. The objection was made in certain friendly quarters that it was highly improper that I should have taken up a controversial subject like this and presented a paper to a Conference held in honour of Sir R. G. Bhandarkar himself "criticising his views." The word criticism conveys a little too often unfortunately, the sense of finding fault which is far from the accepted significance of the term. Criticism is of the essence of historical research and no one is justified in proceeding on research work without making sure that the footing gained already by previous work is actually beyond cavil. That can be done only by a thorough re-examination of the work already done, not with a view to find
