Page:Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India Vol 1.pdf/8



matter contained in these two volumes is the result of the archæological survey which I conducted during four consecutive years from 1862 to 1865. The object of this survey cannot be better stated than in the memorandum which I laid before Lord Canning in November 1861, and which led to my immediate appointment as Archaeological Surveyor to the Government of India, as notified in the following minute:

November last, when at Allahabad, I had some com­munications with Colonel A. Cunningham, then the Chief Engineer of the North-Western Provinces, regarding an investigation of the archaeological remains of Upper India.

"It is impossible to pass through that part,—or indeed, so far as my experience goes, any part—of the British territories in India without being struck by the neglect with which the greater portion of the architectural remains, and of the traces of by-gone civilization have been treated, though many of these, and some which have had least notice, are full of beauty and interest.

"By 'neglect' I do not mean only the omission to restore them, or even to arrest their decay; for this would be a task which, in many cases, would require an expendi­ture of labour and money far greater than any Government of India could reasonably bestow upon it.

"But so far as the Government is concerned, there has been neglect of a much cheaper duty,—that of investigat­ing and placing on record, for the instruction of future generations, many particulars that might still be rescued from oblivion, and throw light upon the early history of England's great dependency; a history which, as time moves on, as the country becomes more easily accessible and