Padmini An Indian Romance

MR T. RAMAKRISHNA whose acquaintance I made in Madras some years ago asks me to write a few lines of preface to a romance of bygone Indian days which he is publishing. My knowledge of the annals of Southern India of the period to which the romance relates the period in which the great Empire of Vijianagar fell-is far too slender to entitle me to express an opinion as to the manner in which the features of Indian life during that period are depicted; and indeed the materials accessible to a European for studying it are very scanty. But I willingly take this opportunity of expressing the interest which students of history feel in the rise and growth of an Indo-English literature-that s to say of a literature written by natives of India using the English tongue as a means of conveying their thoughts not only to Europeans but also to those dwellers in India who use an Indian vernacular different from their own.