Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/16

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

vi INTBODUCTION from the famous al-Bironi and have added an excerpt from the Persian geographer Mustaufi, better known to us as al-Kazvini. The accounts by the Europeans give a good picture of the manner in which India pre- sented itself to Occidental eyes from the end of the fifteenth century onward. The selections taken from Strabo are from the stand- ard translation by Hamilton and Falconer, but I have carefully revised the version with the help of my pupil Mr. Charles J. Ogden. The chapter from Hiuan Tsang is based upon the translation by Beal (" Buddhist Rec- ords "), but has been thoroughly remodelled and like- wise compared with the version by Watters, this task being done for me by one of my students, Mr. Kentok Hori, a Buddhist priest of Japan. The selections from Roger's early Dutch account of India have been trans- lated for the first time into English by my friend and former pupil Dr. Louis H. Gray. Grateful acknowledg- ment is here made for the privilege of quoting at length several passages from the Hakluyt Society's publica- tions, Sachau's al-Biruni, and Beauchamp's translation of an account of suttee by the Abbe Dubois, the latter passage being among the citations in the second chap- ter. In all cases the sources to which I have been in- debted are indicated in their proper places, and the text in general has been treated as in the preceding vol- umes. The illustrations are taken largely from original photographs or old prints, but useful aid, as in the preceding volumes, has been received from such well-