The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c13.2

v2.c13.2

We owe an apology to the readers for not being able to reproduce all the plates of the original edition. The financial commitment for that would have been heavy. Besides, in the only copy of the book with which we were obliged to work, some of the plates are too indistinct to be satisfactorily reproduced. There has, moreover, been another reason for the decision of using only selected plates in this reprint. A large number of the plates of the original edition were but full-view photographs of the Orissan temples. However much valuable these might have been for illustrating a pioneering work on Orissan art and archæology, the photographic technique has vastly advanced since the days of R. L. Mitra and much better photographs of the same temples are now easily available. So we saw little point in reproducing the rather obsolete photographs. In selecting the plates for reproduction here, we have of course tried to remain conscious of the special points of æsthetic and archæological importance which the author wanted to make with the plates.