INTRODUCTORY.
Srijut Tarini Charan Bhattacharyya, the editor and translator of Ghora-nidan, died at Gauhati on December 15th, 1927, while he was enjoying his well-earned pension after having served the Government as Sub-Deputy Collector. The book kept him busy for more than a year. He had to plod on with the text bristling with obsolete technical terms, identify the species of horses and antidotes mentioned and find out their English equivalents. Besides, the manuscripts were in many places undecipherable; and the first-hand experts whom he app roached for elucidation of a difficult text had no special acquaintance with the equestrian science preserved in the treatise Ghora-nidan. Under these circumstances the preparation of a correct text and its rendering in English constituted in themselves a work of tremendous labour; and what the author has achieved in this unpioneered field during such a short time reflects credit on his energy and tenacity. Perfection in such a venture is not a matter of one but of several generations. Ghora-nidan and the more artistic, erudite and laborious sister treatise on elephants Hastividyarnava are valuable contributions to the veterinary science of the Assamese people, and both the books were, in all likelihood, compiled under the commission of the state for use as staff manuals by officers and men employed by the Ahom Government under the Ghora-chowa Barua and Hati-Barua, heads of the departments of horses and elephants respectively; and as far as Hasti-vidyarnava is concerned we know positively that it was compiled in 1734 by one Sukumar Kaith under the orders of Queen Madamvika, consort regnant of King Siva Singha, 1714-1744, while the illustrations were supplied by two court painters Dilbar and Dasoi. Their use was naturally extended to private owners and professional dealers. These two representative treatises reveal the richness and variety of the Assamese pharmacopœia, and their literary value consists in the preservation of a very large number of expressions now thrown into disuse.
