XXVI INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS, NEW DELHI The 26th International Congress of Orientalists will meet at New delhi on the 4th January, 1964. The first session of the Congress was held in Paris inthe year 1873. Susequent sessions have been held usually at intervals of 3 or 4 years in different cities of the world. The participants in the Congress incude, apart from orientalists in the technical sense, historians, philosophers, philologists, archeologists, economists, anthropologists, students of comarative religion and art and, indeed, representatives of every branch of the humanities and social sciences.

The scope and functions of the Congress may be summed up in the following words : - "...to set forth and discuss the results of researches in the field of Oriental antiquities, to reveal to the world the great and unique cultures of ancient Asia and Africa, to open for mankind the priceless historical relics of the people of the East, and to make a proper assesment of their contribution to the world civilization..." The Congress will deliberate on the advance made in researches into various aspects of the Oriental heritage of the mankind. The Congress has been diveded into ten principle sections ranging from Egyptology and Indology to Islamic and African studies.

The Posts and Telegraphs Department is Privileged to issue a special stamp to commemorate the convening of the Congress in India on the 4th January 1964. Appropriately enough, the motif adopted in the stamp is the bronze figure of "DIPA-LAKSHMI" which signifies the spirit of illumination through study and investigation.

Designed and printed by the General Manager, Govt of India Press, New Delhi, for the D.G.P.& T.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India