Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c11.s2.17

c11.s2.17

The progress of the CII was further promoted by the appointment in January 1883 of John Faithfull Fleet as epigraphist to the government of India for a term of three years, "with the primary duty of preparing the volume [of CII] that was to contain the Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings" (CII 3, preface, 1). This goal was reached with Fleet's publication in 1888 of the volume in question. His success can be measured by the fact that, although his volume was superseded by the revised edition by D. R. Bhandarkar published in 1981, it remains an indispensable research tool and in some respects at least is still more reliable than the volume which superseded it.¹¹⁸ When Fleet's appointment as government epigraphist expired in June 1886, Eugen Hultzsch was appointed to succeed him in August of the same year and continued to occupy this office until 1903.