PREFACE. The present work had its origin in the scheme sanctioned by the Government of India in November 1868 for the discovery and preserva- tion of the records of Ancient Sanskrit Literature in India. In the dis- tribution of the funds granted for carrying out that plan, Mysore was associated in one circle with Madras ; and the latter Government in November 1870 placed the services of Dr. Burnell at the disposal of the Chief Commissioner of Mysore for the examination of Sanskrit manu- scripts, but nothing seems to have been done under this arrangement. Meanwhile a catalogue, containing 608 numbers, of the Sanskrit works in the Sarasvati Bhandaram Library of His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore had been compiled under the direction of Colonel G. B. Malleson, c. s. i., Guardian to the Maharaja, which was forwarded in October 1869 by the Chief Commissioner, Mr. L. Bowririg, c. s. t, to the Government of India, who sent it through the Bombay Government to Dr. Kielhorn at Poona for report. This gentleman farther in January 1874 sent up a supplementary catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts in the same Library, comprising 270 works, some of them being re-catalogued from the former list. Dr. G. Oppert, also, who published one volume of the Madras cata- logue in 1880, included in it 139 works belonging to the Asthana Pandit In February 1878 the Government of India, on reviewing what had been done to give effect to the scheme of 1868, called for the opinion of the Local Governments as to the desirability of redistributing the work, and of Mysore and Coorg being attached to the Madras circla This re- lulted in my appointment in July 1880 to institute the necessary in- quiries and compile a catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts existing in Mysore and Coorg. Printed forms were at once circulated to be filled up for this purpose, but all were not received back till last Christmas. The information here embodied has been chiefly obtained through the local authorities, as the work had to be done in conjunction with my other duties, and during part of the time I was absent at Calcutta on special duty as Secretary to the Education Commission. A personal
