South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c6.5

c6.5

The work embodies a considerable volume of information the collection of which was made possible by the liberal permission accorded by the Syndicate of the University of Madras to my making a tour in the parts of the country involved in the course of this history. I acknowledge my obligation to them for their sympathy. Even so it would have been impossible to have got together all the local information I have, but for the good offices of several of my friends, among whom I must mention prominently Rao Sahib M. Ct. Muthia Chettiar, M.L.C., Sheriff of Madras, Diwan Bahadur T. Desikachariar, B.A., B.L., M.L.C., and his assistant Mr. N. P. Swaminatha Ayyar, B.A., Archæologist of the Pudukotta State, and my late lamented friend Mr. C. S. Anantarama Ayyar, B.A., Revenue Divisional Officer at Devakotta, carried off in the prime of a very useful and unostentatious life to the detriment alike of the service of which he was an ornament, and all real Oriental Scholarship for which he had always had genuine sympathy, and, what is more, in which he could and did take active interest. I must not omit mention of M.R.Ry. V. Ramalinga Mudaliar, Tahsildar of Sivaganga, for much valuable assistance. I acknowledge my indebtedness to these gentlemen with the most sincere pleasure. I acknowledge with equal pleasure my obligation to Principal Tait, late of the Central College, Bangalore, who read through the manuscript for me and offered valuable advice adding to his many kindnesses to me through a long period of close on thirty years during which he was successively my professor, colleague and Principal, but all along a friend. I am grateful to His Exalted Highness the Nizam's Government, Rao Bahadur R. Narasimhachariar, Prāktanavimarśa Vichakṣaṇa, Director of Archæological Researches in Mysore, Mr. A. H. Longhurst, Superintendent of Archæology, Madras, and Messrs. Wiele and Klein, Photographers, Madras, for having permitted the use of their excellent photographs for the illustrations.