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PREFACE
T
t was in 1969 that I wrote a detailed biography of Pandit Guru
A
Datta Vidyarthi in Hindi. After it was reprinted twice, a revision
and documentation of this book was undertaken in 1996. With this
objective in view, a hunt for old magazines, journals and also books
on and by Panditji was made. By God's grace, I succeeded in laying
my hand on several booklets by Guru Datta Vidyarthi, all the three
editions of the compilation of his works by Lala Jivan Das, Papers for
the Thoughtful, in addition to certain issues of The Arya (March 1882-
February 1883), The Regenerator of Aryavarta (January 1883-
December 1884), Arya Patrika (June 1885-June 1888) and three issues
of Panditji's Vedic Magazine (July-September, 1889) in which most of
his works were originally published during his lifetime. I was tempted
to compare the available texts of his writings with the •original
documents and to preserve the valuable treasure of Panditji s wisdom
through republication of his collected works. This led to the present
compilation.
The first edition of the Works of Late Pandit Guru Datta Vidyarthi
edited by Lala Jivan Das 101 years back in 1897 contained a few
such articles which were never published after that. The third edition
of 1912 is just a reprint of second edition of 1902. These three editions
did not include some of his essays which were published in The
Papers for the Thoughtful, and The Works of Late Pandit Guru Datta
Vidyarthi M.A. Part II in 1902. In the present compilation, all these
essays, a few of his letters to Lala Lajpat Rai and Lala Jivan Das and
certain extracts from his diaries have been included, and arranged
subject-wise. The text has been edited with a view to restoring it to
original beauty. Additional comas and punctuation marks figuring
in the collected works but not in the original writings have been done
away with. Small capitals, itallics and footnotes on the respective
pages have been retained as such. However, the page numbers of the
books quoted in these writings have been changed, as far as possible,
to those of their editions now available. A large number of the cited
references have been verified and corrected. Similarly Panditji quoted
ii