Page:A descriptive catalogue of Bengali works.djvu/6

 PREFACE. The object of this work is to be a Guide to those who vish to procure Bengali Books, either for educational pur- >ose8, for libraries, or for gaining an acquaintance with the lindu manners, customs, or modes of thought. Popular literature is an Index to the state of the popular mind. While we have " Sir H. Elliot's Index to the Muham- madan Historians of India," "Adelung*s Guide to San- skrit Works," edited by Professor Wilson. " Sprenger's Catalogue of the Luckow Oriental Libraries," published at the expense of the Government of India, and Garcin De Tassi's " History of Hindustani Literature," published by the Oriental Translation Fund, and dedicated to the Queen, we have hitherto had no list of Bengali works to shew what has been done, what is doing, what ought to be done. This Catalogue is an extract from a larger one, which the author is preparing for the press, and which will enter more into detail on various points. The learned native by observing the comparative poverty and richness of the literature of his native tongue, will see the sphere of usefulness that lies before him, in transla- tion or original composition. As such a number of works has been noticed, about 1 ,400, the remarks on each must be necessarily- very brief. Those works obtainable, and suitable for general circulation, have numbers affixed to them, and are procurable through Messrs. Rozario and Co., or Hay and Co., on condition of cash payments. The greater part of these books can be seen at the Pub- lic Library, where a Vernacular Library has been establish- ed, through the munificence of Babu Jaykisatti Mukerjyea*