This atlas may be viewed as a point of convergence of innumerable human ac- tions, only a miniscule fraction of which were consciously directed toward its cre- ation. As a distillation of the history of a major part of our planet, it records the deeds, momentous and mundane, of countless men and women from the time the first recognizable palaeolithic tool was fashioned until the present day. We begin, therefore, by humbly acknowledging our debt to the makers of South Asian his- tory, a history as rich and wondrous as that of any portion of the world.

Needless to say, the total cost of such a large and complex undertaking inevi- tably reached substantial proportions. The principal financial support for this work came from the United States Office of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and various agencies of the University of Minnesota. Four grants from the USOE provided the largest share of the funding for the basic map re- search and compilation carried out at Minnesota from 1966 to 1971 and also a portion of the expenses of the American Geographical Society of New York for the final drafting of atlas plates. By far the greatest part of the cost of final map drafting, however, was borne by the NEH. Of the four NEH grants to the Project over the period 1970 to 1974, three were contingent on substantial counterpart support from the University of Minnesota for atlas work at the University; the final award, entirely for work at the AGS, was a matching grant made possible by equal funding from the Ford Foundation. The generosity of these agencies and their faith in the Project, made manifest by successive grants even though the staff was repeatedly unable to meet the overly optimistic deadlines it had set for itself, are deeply appreciated.

Despite the generous funding from a variety of external sources as noted here, had it not been for the sizable unpaid contributions of labor and advice from so many individuals, it would not have been possible to attain the level of quality ultimately achieved.

Units of, or within, the University of Minnesota that contributed financially to the Project include the Graduate School; the Departments of Geography, South Asian Studies, and History; the Committees on Asia and South Asia; the Office of International Programs; the Economic Development Center; the Center for Comparative Research in Technological Development and Social Change; the Council on Liberal Education; and the Small Grants Program. Although most of the funds provided were for the support of temporary research staff, portions of several academic salaries of regular teaching staff, prorated to accord with their research input to the Project, were also contributed, as were funds to support a sabbatical year devoted to atlas work and an additional year plus several single quarters of research leave by the editor. Portions of the intrauniversity funding were originally derived from outside agencies, including the United States Office of Education, through awards made under the National Defense Education Act, the Ford Foundation, and the Hill Family Foundation (now the Northwest Area Foundation). Valuable assistance to the Project in external fund-raising was ex- tended by the University of Minnesota Foundation, the former Office of Sponsored Programs, and its successor, the Research Development Center.

Although several of the grants from the United States Office of Education did entail substantial payments to the university for overhead costs, during most of the life of the Project such costs and miscellaneous nonsalary expenditures (sup- plies, telephone, postage, and the like) were borne exclusively by the university. Working quarters were provided for the Project at a variety of campus sites— depending on the fluctuating size of the staff.

Although it would be possible to impute specific values to the many large and small services made available through the university, there is no way of adequately reckoning the unfailing moral support for the undertaking evinced by faculty col- leagues and by persons at various levels of the administration. For both the psychic benefit of that moral support and the many tangible manifestations of its being genuine, warm thanks are extended. A complete list of individuals deserving of our gratitude would be very long; but special recognition is in order for the help provided by Robert T. Holt, Robert J. Odegard, Vernon W. Ruttan, and William E. Wright.

Thanks are also due to other nongovernmental agencies and individuals pro- viding funding for the compilation phase of the Project's existence. These include Mr. Charles Lesley Ames, Mrs. Linda B. Ames, and the Lyndhurst Charitable Trust (established by Mr. Ames and directed after his death by Mrs. Ames); Mr. William Applebaum, a "Distinguished Alumnus" of the University's Department of Geography; the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Social Science Research Council, the latter two organizations making personal grants to the edi- tor for travel and for research support, respectively. Each of the sponsors just named rendered assistance at a time of dire financial need. To those benefactors who responded personally to the expression of that need, special thanks are due.

In the foregoing preface, mention was made of the formation of an Editorial Advisory Board in the spring of 1966 and of the many useful services provided by its outside members, none of whom received any remuneration for his assist- ance. We hope, however, that each will derive satisfaction from this, as well as previous, expressions of our gratitude and from the knowledge that he was instru- mental in bringing this work to fruition. The membership is as follows:

Joel M. Andress, Department of Geography, Central Washington State College

Robert I. Crane, Department of History, Syracuse University

Walter A. Fairservis, Department of Archaeology, University of Washington, and staff member, American Museum of Natural History, New York

Holden Furber, Departments of History and South Asia Regional Studies, Uni- versity of Pennsylvania (now professor emeritus)

Stephen N. Hay, Department of History, University of California at Santa Barbara

Richard D. Lambert, Departments of South Asia Regional Studies and Sociology and associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Penn- sylvania

Ralph H. Retzlaff, formerly of the Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley; now Director of the Interregional Program of the Agri- cultural Development Council, Inc., Singapore

Henry Scholberg, Ames Library of South Asia, University of Minnesota

Walter M. Spink, Department of Art History, University of Michigan

Johannes A. B. van Buitenen, Department of South Asian Languages and Civili- zations, University of Chicago

In addition to the above, Jan Otto Marius Broek, Burton Stein, and Joseph E. Schwartzberg, all on the Project's staff at Minnesota at the time of the board's inception, served as ex-officio members. Broek retained his membership after his retirement until his death in August 1974, and Stein also retained his membership after leaving Minnesota to join the staff of the Department of History at the Uni- versity of Hawaii.

Friends of the Project have demonstrated their concern for its success in many ways. Among the more important expressions of that concern were the letters of recommendation, personal representations, and favorable endorsements to poten- tial funding agencies and publishers made in support of the enterprise. For these we extend our thanks to Arthur Llewellyn Basham, John Broomfield, W. Norman Brown, Samuel Burke, Bernard Cohn, Edward Dimock, Luther Evans, Holden Furber, Norton Ginsburg, Richard Hartshorne, Richard Lambert, Ralph Nicholas, Richard Park, Karl Potter, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, Phillips Talbott, J. A. B. van Buitenen, and Paul Wheatley. In addition to these, many other South Asian scholars have indirectly aided the Project by contributing, as it were, to the "good press" it has enjoyed throughout its existence.

While much the greater part of the map compilations and of the text were exe- cuted by members of the atlas staff at Minnesota, many important contributions also came from other sources and, with only one exception, were provided with- out financial remuneration to the sender. The individual contributions, ranging from brief responses to specific queries or the provision of a photograph to major pieces of research, are largely acknowledged in the appropriate portions of the atlas text or, where co-authorship of a map is involved, by the author's initials in the lower left corner of the map plate. Contributors regarded as co-authors of one or more maps or of portions of the text, who along with all other friends in need have earned our deepest gratitude, are as follows: