Indo- Aryan and Hindi- Eight Lectures Originally Delivered in 1940 before the Gujarat Vernacular Society, Ahmedabad (An Old and Rare Book)

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In October 1540 at the invitation of the Research and Post-graduate Department of the Gujarat Vernacular Society (now Gujarat Vidya Sabha) of Ahmedabad, two courses of lectures were delivered by me on (i) the Evolution of the Aryan Language in India, and (i) the Development of Hindi (or Hindusthani) and its present position of importance (it was then conceived as the prospective 'National Language" of India). These lectures were published, with revisions and additions, as a book by the Gujarat Vernacular Society in January 1942.

This book is now published in its Second Edition, thoroughly revised and with some additions; and its point of view in certain matters has been modified. The work became popular as a hand-book for the subject in many parts of India and abroad, and Gujarati and Hindi translations of it have appeared (the latter is now in its second edition). The first series of these lectures, on the Evolution of Indo-Aryan, is a development or continuation of my views on the history of the Aryan speech in India as put forward in my Origin and Development of the Bengali language which was published in 1926. In the second series, I have sought to indi-cate the importance and significance of the Hindi speech in present-day India, and while discussing the nature and history of Hindi, I have put in a case for a Simplified Hindi and for an Indo-Roman Script for Hindi and other languages of India.

The work came into existence at the instance of the Gujarat Vernacular Society (Gujarat Vidya Sabha), to the authorities of which institution I once again express my best thanks for the honour they did me in 1940 in asking me to come to Ahmedabad and deliver these lectures, and for the great kindness with which friends in Ahmedabad received me and my wife during our visit in 1940 for these lectures. The book was printed in its first edition in Calcutta at the Sri Bharati Press under the management of the late Satis Chandra Seal, who was the erudite Secretary of the Indian Research Institute which was an important Indological society of the day. The work was out of print for last few years, and at the instance of Sri Kanailal Mukhopadhyaya, well-known in India and abroad as the publisher of a number of important works relating to Indian history and culture, the second edition is now seeing the light of day.

I regret very much that owing to want of time through my heavy pre-occupations I could not give an Index.

I trust as a contribution to the study of Indian Linguistics, this second edition will be found useful to students and others.