Published by the Bihar: and Orissa Research Society. Printed by the Superintendent, Government Frinting, Bihar and Orissa OF THE BIHAR AND ORISSA RESEARCH SOCIETY For the year 1916. Patron. His Honour Sir Edward Albert Gait, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., I.C.S. The Hon'ble Sir Edward Vere Levinge, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., I.C.S. The Hon'ble Sir William Henry Hoare Vincent, Kt., I.C.S. The Hon'ble Maharaja Bahadur Sir Rameswar Singh, G.C.I.E., of Darbhanga. The Hon'ble Maharaja Bahadur Sir Ravaneswar Prasad Singh, K.C.I.E., of Gidhaur. Maharaja Bir Mitradaya Singh Deo of Sonepur State. President. His Honour Sir Edward Albert Gait, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., 1.C.S. Secretaries for History Section-K. P. Jayaswal, Esq., M.A., Bar.-atLaw, and Professor J. N. Samaddar, B.A. Secretary for Archæology and Numismatics-D. B. Spooner, Esq., B.A., Ph.D. Secretary for Anthropology and Folk-lore-Babu S. C. Roy, M.A., B.L. ecretaries for Philology-Mahamahopadhyaya Pandit Hara Prasad Shastri, M.A., C.I.E., and Nawab Shams-ul-'Ulama Saiyid Imdad Imam. (Continued on page 3 of cover.) By His Honour Sir Edward Gait, K.C.S.I., C.I.E. GENTLEMEN, It will be convenient if I take the opportunity of our first annual general meeting to give you a brief account of the progress which has been made by the Bihar and Orissa Research Society since it came into existence a year ago. The proceedings of the inaugural meeting, presided over by Sir Charles Bayley, which was held on the 20th January 1915, have been printed in the first number of our Journal, together with the rules of the Society as finally passed by the Council. Up to date 199 persons have been approved by the Council as members of our Society in addition to the gentlemen who joined it at the start. There are also seventeen candidates for election at the present moment, and if these are all elected, our total membership will amount to 254. This, I think, is a fairly satisfactory result for our first year. At our inaugural meeting Mr. Sachhidananda Sinha announced his intention of presenting his valuable library to the Society, and we hoped that this generous gift would be emulated by others. This I regret to say, has not yet been the case, and the only response we have yet had to an appeal which was made for donations for the purchase of books for our library is a donation of Rs. 100 from the Proprietor of the Aul State in Orissa, to whom our best thanks are due. We still hope that before long his example will be followed by other gentlemen of means. Books of the kind we need are expensive and we cannot expect to have a really good library unless we receive liberal contributions to supplement the income from annual subscriptions. I am glad to be able to tell you that the result of the request which was made to Government for assistance, in accordance with the Resolution proposed at the inaugural meeting by Professor Jadu Nath Sarkar, has resulted in an undertaking by Government to subscribe for a hundred copies of our Journal. This will go a good way towards meeting the expenditure on paper and printing. Owing to the difficulty experienced in finding a suitable private firm to undertake the work, the first two numbers of the Journal have been printed at the Gulzarbagh Government Press, but we hope shortly to arrange for a printer of our own. The Local Government have also made a contribution of Rs. 3,000 per annum, on the analogy of a similar grant made by the Bengal Government to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, to enable the Research Society to give Rs. 250 a month to our General Secretary, Babu Sarat Chandra Roy, who would not otherwise be able to devote the requisite amount of time to his research work and other duties, especially those in connection with ethnography. There are many of our members who are in a position to add to our knowledge of this important subject. It will be the Secretary's business to get into touch with such persons, to stimulate them to action and to help them with his advice, without which they would often not know how to set to work or what information is needed. In accordance with the decision arrived at at the Council meeting held on the 6th April 1915, the Local Government were addressed with a view to the establishment of a Provincial |