THE Government of Bombay has at various times taken steps towards portraying and presenting, to the public portions of the magnificent architecture with which the Presidency and the terri¬tories bordering on it bound. About ten years ago, Captain (now Colonel) Biggs and Dr. Pigou were employed to take photographs at Beejapoor, and in Dharwar and Mysore. Subsequently a series of plans and drawings of Beejapoor, which had been prepared under the superintendence of Captain Hart, were published for the Govern¬ment under the editorship of Mr. James Fergusson; and more recently still, Colonel Biggs took for the same authority a number of photographs of Ahmedabad. In February 1865 the undermentioned gentlemen were requested by his Excellency, Sir H. Bartle E. Frere, K.S.I., K.C.B., Governor of Bombay, to form themselves into a com¬mittee, with the view of publishing the materials collected as above described, and others to be procured, in the form of a comprehensive series of volumes on the Architectura l Antiquities of Western India.

The expense of producing illustrated works of the description contemplated being necessarily so heavy that, even if sold at cost price they would be within the reach of a comparatively small portion of the public, certain native gentlemen volunteered, for the honour of their country and the greater diffusion of an acquaintance with it, each to take one volume under his patronage and contribute £1000 towards its publication. Mr. Premchuud Raichund, a Jain and a native of Goozerat, has very liberally taken under his patronage two volumes, of which this is one, and the other, con¬taining some of the principal edifices in Dharwar and Mysore, will appear shortly. A third volume, containing architecture at Beejapoor, an old Mahometan capital in the Deccan, will appear simultaneously with this, under the patronage of Mr. Kursondas Madhowdas. The three works have been produced under the gra¬tuitous editorship and superintendence of Mr. T. C. Hope, of the Bombay Civil Service, who has likewise presented the historical and descriptive sketch contained in this volume. It is hoped that they may ultimately be followed by three more: the first embracing the early Hindoo and Jaina architecture of Goozerat; the second, the Cave-Temples of Western India; and the third, the old cities of Wurungol, Kulean, Golconda, Goolburga, etc., together with the Hill Forts of the Deccan, and other miscellaneous objects of interest.