Page:The Mahabharata (Kishori Mohan Gangopadhyay, First Edition) Volume 17.djvu/9

 Slowly but steadily I have ascended another rung. The Mausala Parva has been finished, and the Mahāprasthānika is reached. The applications I have addressed to the patrons of my husband still remain unanswered. Only one has been disposed of, viz., that which I had ventured to lay before Maharajah Sir Lachmeswar Sing Bahadur of Durbhanga. To my singular misfortune, the Maharajah has rejected my humble appeal. From the beginning of the enterprise, my husband had made several attempts to interest in it the "primier [sic] nobleman of Bengal" as Dr. Sambhu C. Mukerjee, with his usual felicity of expression, first styled the Maharajah on his entrance into public life. To his great grief, however, my husband found the Maharajah entirely inaccessible. My husband was favoured with interviews by Viceroys and Provincial Governors and Lieutenant-Governors, and ruling chiefs and princes. The "primier [sic] nobleman of Bengal," however, rejected every prayer of my husband to grant him an interview and every appeal for aid. The French Government went out of its way for helping the enterprise even liberally, disregarding its serial character and the fact of its being an incomplete foreign publication. Every local Government, the Government of India, and the Secretary of State have helped it. That such an enterprise should fail to interest the primier [sic] nobleman of Bengal and enlist his active sympathy, is inexplicable. There is one other nobleman, viz., the Maharajah Sir Gajapati Rao of Vizianagram, who also has not as yet done anything for the publication. The house of Vizianagram has been noted for its liberality. The present Maharajah is distinguished for his culture. On the occasion of the visit of the Archduke of Austria, he was the only Indian nobleman who was able to converse with the Archduke without the aid of an interpreter. He was pleased to favour my husband with several interviews and to even promise him substantial aid. One of my husband's patrons, an eminent official, having recommanded [sic] the enterprise to the notice of the Maharajah, received ample