xvill PREFACE grudged to render me help whenever I required it and also very kindly undertook to compare and verify the quotations cited from these manuscripts in the Appendix to this volume. I should also take this opportunity of associatin s this insignificant work with the honoured name of the late lamented Principal Ramendrasundar Tribedi, who was, in more than a metaphorical sense, the life and soul of the Sahitya Parisat. His recent and untimely death is mourned all over Bengal and there is no need for prolix panegyrics in the case of one who is so widely known by his life and work ; but I cannot remain satisfied without giving voice to my sense of indebtedness and esteem for one to whom I am grateful in many ways and without expressing my personal regret that I could not show him these pages, in which he took so much interest, in print. To the ripe and varied scholarship of Mahamahopadhyay Haraprasad Shastri, I am deeply indebted in divers ways, for I was always allowed to draw liberally upon it; and his contagious enthusiasm for Bengali language and _liter- ature has been a source of unfailing inspiration to me. Among other friends and scholars who kindly helped me in various ways, my thanks are specially due to my friend and colleague Professor Rameshchandra Mazumdar M.A., Ph.D. for steady encouragement, for valuable suggestions and for procuring me some rare books from the Library of the Bengal Asiatic Society. I may be allowed to note here that Dr. Mazumdar first drew my attention to the only extant copy in that Library of Manoel de Assumpcao’s Crepar Xartrer Orthhhed, one of the earliest printed books written by a Portuguese missionary. To another friend and colleague, Professor Sunitikumar Chatterji M.A., I am indebted for help in various ways and: specially for getting me a copy of Father Guerin’s edition of the work referred to above from Father Wauters of Dharmatalla
