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This series focuses on South Asia during the colonial period. It includes contemporary accounts of European trade and settlement there, from the arrival of the East India companies to the full-blown colonial administration of the Victorian period, as well as works describing the earlier history of the region for the benefit of European readers.

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97 results in Cambridge Library Collection - South Asian History

Page 1 of 5

The History, Antiquities, Topography, and Statistics of Eastern India
  • In Relation to their Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, Fine Arts, Population, Religion, Education, Statistics, etc.
  • Volume 1, Behar (Patna City) and Shahabad
  • Robert Montgomery Martin
  • Published online:
    05 February 2016
    Print publication:
    14 June 2012
    First published in:
    1838
  • In 1807, the Directors of the East India Company ordered a survey of the nine districts, covering 60,000 square miles and containing 15,000,000 British subjects, which formed the Eastern territories of British India. In this three-volume work, published in 1838, Irish civil servant and author Robert Montgomery Martin (1801–68) compiled and collated the original survey material at East India House to describe the geography, geology, meteorology, natural history, agriculture and manufactures, population, history, architecture, fine arts, religion and education of this huge area. Martin, the first colonial Treasurer of Hong Kong, founder of the East India Association, author of History of the British Colonies (1834–5), and later publisher of the Duke of Wellington's dispatches, carried out his work to alert the British public to the growing social and political problems he perceived in India. Volume 1 covers the districts of Behar (Patna City) and Shahabad.

A Monograph on Trade and Manufactures in Northern India
  • William Hoey
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    20 October 2011
    First published in:
    1880
  • William Hoey (1849–1919) was a magistrate in Lucknow, India when this book was published by the American Missionary Press in 1880. At the time, Lucknow was the seventh largest city in the British Empire, and it was the capital of the province that had most recently come under British rule. Hoey's monograph captures the details of trade in the city and surrounding regions at this time of change. Part 1 outlines the prominent features of trade in the area and includes tables of imports and exports. Part 2 focuses on Lucknow specifically, and contains the author's discussion of the impact of British rule on the city. The third part is a detailed A-Z of every trade, including information on production, prices and profit, and the work concludes with an extensive glossary of Indian terms. The level of detail in this work makes it an invaluable historical document.

The History of Ceylon, from the Earliest Period to the Year MDCCCXV
  • To Which is Subjoined, Robert Knox's Historical Relation of the Island
  • A. M. Philalethes, Robert Knox
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    17 May 2012
    First published in:
    1817
  • This 1817 book by 'A. M. Philalethes' traces the history of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from the classical period to 1815, providing details of the religion, laws and manners of the people. An appendix contains an account, originally published in 1681, by Robert Knox (1641–1720) of his nearly twenty-year captivity on the island. The identity of the pseudonymous 'Philalethes' is not certain: he may have been Robert Fellowes (1770–1847), who, however, never visited Ceylon, or the Revd G. Bissett, who did. The book, which includes topographical notes and a collection of moral maxims and ancient proverbs, begins with classical accounts of the Island of Ceylon by Ptolemy, among others, and moves from this 'imperfect acquaintance with this remote region' to Knox's 'lively picture of the state of the country and manners of the people' which, according to 'Philalethes', was among the most important possessions of Great Britain.

The History, Antiquities, Topography, and Statistics of Eastern India
  • In Relation to their Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, Fine Arts, Population, Religion, Education, Statistics, etc.
  • Volume 2, Bhagulpoor, Goruckpoor, and Dinajepoor
  • Robert Montgomery Martin
  • Published online:
    05 July 2015
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012
    First published in:
    1838
  • In 1807, the Directors of the East India Company ordered a survey of the nine districts, covering 60,000 square miles and containing 15,000,000 British subjects, which formed the Eastern territories of British India. In this three-volume work, published in 1838, Irish civil servant and author Robert Montgomery Martin (1801–68) compiled and collated the original survey material at East India House to describe the geography, geology, meteorology, natural history, agriculture and manufactures, population, history, architecture, fine arts, religion and education of this huge area. Martin, the first colonial Treasurer of Hong Kong, founder of the East India Association, author of History of the British Colonies (1834–5), and later publisher of the Duke of Wellington's dispatches, carried out his work to alert the British public to the growing social and political problems he perceived in India. Volume 2 (reissued in two parts) covers the districts of Bhagalpur, Gorakhpur and Dinajpur.

A Memoir on the Indian Surveys
  • Clements R. Markham
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    05 March 2015
    First published in:
    1871
  • Sir Clements R. Markham (1830–1916), the doyen of historical geography in the late nineteenth century, published this comprehensive work on British surveys of India in 1871, at the request of the Indian Office. As he states in his preface, the object of his book is 'to furnish a general view of all the surveying and other geographical operations in India from their first commencement', so that there was a ready source of information on work already done, both for readers of current surveys and also for the surveyors themselves. Markham begins with the earliest European exploration of the Indian Ocean, including the earliest voyages of the East India Company. Systematic land surveying in India, begun by Major James Rennell, remained in military hands through the period of the trigonometric and topographical surveys, and Markham also covers the geological, archaeological and astronomical surveys of the subcontinent in the nineteenth century.

A Memoir of Central India
  • Including Malwa, and Adjoining Provinces
  • Volume 2
  • John Malcolm
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1823
  • Sir John Malcolm (1769–1833) was a soldier and diplomat in British India and Persia. He returned to India on the eve of the British conquest of Malwa, a region of central India previously little known to Europeans, in 1818. Malcolm studied the region's geology, its agriculture and the history of its ruling families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His reports were first published in Calcutta in 1821, and were revised and expanded for publication in two volumes in London in 1823. Based on interviews with native inhabitants and oral testimonies, Malcolm's work was the leading authority on Malwa until the 1930s, and remains valuable for its first-hand account of nineteenth-century Malwa's politics, culture and society. The most important chapter of Volume 2 contains Malcolm's recommendations for the future of British rule in Malwa. The volume also has an extensive appendix of over 200 pages of primary texts.

The History of Bengal
  • From the First Mohammedan Invasion until the Virtual Conquest of that Country by the English AD 1757
  • Charles Stewart
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1813
  • After a military career with the East India Company, Charles Stewart (1764–1837) focused his attention on the study of oriental languages. Following his return to England in 1806, he assumed the professorship of Arabic, Persian and Hindustani at the East India College in Hertfordshire. His scholarly achievements include an 1809 catalogue of the library of Tipu Sultan of Mysore, and this work, published in 1813, which formed the first serious study in English of the history of Bengal. The book is split into six sections. The first five cover the early Islamic conquests and dynasties from the ninth century onwards. The bulk of the book then covers the Mughal era and ensuing period of independent nawabs, providing also a detailed assessment of the events leading up to the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the beginning of British dominance.

Journey to the North of India
  • Overland from England, through Russia, Persia, and Affghaunistaun
  • Volume 1
  • Arthur Conolly
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    21 August 2014
  • The Great Game, a coinage credited to the British officer Arthur Conolly (1807–42), refers to the nineteenth-century rivalry between Britain and Russia as each power sought supremacy in Central Asia. In a climate of tension and suspicion that the Russians might attempt to invade India via Afghanistan, Conolly, returning from sick leave in England, embarked in 1829 on an expedition through the region. His narrative provides observations on the various Asiatic peoples he encountered, including the social, religious and political aspects of their cultures. He describes also the many dangers he had to deal with, requiring him to assume a series of false identities. The risks that Conolly faced were underscored some years later, when he was captured and executed in Bukhara. Volume 1 recounts the first part of his journey, from St Petersburg, through the Caucasus, via Tiflis and Tehran, towards Herat.

Journey to the North of India
  • Overland from England, through Russia, Persia, and Affghaunistaun
  • Volume 2
  • Arthur Conolly
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    21 August 2014
  • The Great Game, a coinage credited to the British officer Arthur Conolly (1807–42), refers to the nineteenth-century rivalry between Britain and Russia as each power sought supremacy in Central Asia. In a climate of tension and suspicion that the Russians might attempt to invade India via Afghanistan, Conolly, returning from sick leave in England, embarked in 1829 on an expedition through the region. His narrative provides observations on the various Asiatic peoples he encountered, including the social, religious and political aspects of their cultures. He describes also the many dangers he had to deal with, requiring him to assume a series of false identities. The risks that Conolly faced were underscored some years later, when he was captured and executed in Bukhara. Volume 2 recounts the time Conolly spent in Afghanistan. Included also are appendices addressing the possible overland invasion of India as well as the history of Afghanistan.

Major James Rennell and the Rise of Modern English Geography
  • Clements R. Markham
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    24 April 2014
    First published in:
    1895
  • In this 1895 survey of the life and works of James Rennell (1742–1830), the geographer and historian Clements R. Markham (1830–1916) describes him as 'the greatest geographer that Great Britain has yet produced'. The book was published in the 'Century Science Series', which narrated the lives and works of exemplars in each area of science, and Markham goes on to explain why Rennell should be the chosen representative of geography. 'He was an explorer both by sea and land, a map compiler, a physical geographer, a critical and comparative geographer, and a hydrographer.' Rennell is probably best remembered for the surveys of western Asia (also reissued in this series) in which he attempted to match modern to classical sites, but his professional career was spent as an army surveyor in India and Africa. Markham's account of Rennell's life concludes with an examination of his geographical legacy.

Researches and Missionary Labours among the Jews, Mohammedans, and Other Sects
  • Joseph Wolff
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • Born in Franconia, the son of a rabbi, Joseph Wolff (1795–1862) was baptised in 1812. Educated in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, he later studied Arabic, Syriac and Aramaic in Vienna, and Christian theology in Rome before being expelled from the city for his heretical views. He came to England, became a member of the Church of England, and then embarked on his missionary work. Though he met with limited evangelical success, the books he went on to publish made him well known at home. Reissued here is his 1835 account of travels in the early 1830s through the Middle East and Asia, during which he experienced robbery and disease, journeyed through the Himalayas, and was hosted by numerous royal courts. This tale, exotic and extraordinary, is a remarkable source for those interested in nineteenth-century orientalism and Christian missionary zeal.

Ayeen Akbery
  • Or, The Institutes of the Emperor Akber
  • Volume 1
  • Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak
  • Translated by Francis Gladwin
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • Akbar the Great (1542–1605) is often regarded as the Mughal Empire's most accomplished ruler. This document on the workings of his empire was produced by Akbar's vizier, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (1551–1602). Between 1783 and 1786, the scholar Francis Gladwin (1744/5–1812) produced an English translation from the original Persian. Reissued here is the two-volume edition that appeared in 1800. As the work's dedicatee and Governor-General of Bengal, Warren Hastings had seen the translation as illuminating the Mughal Empire's 'original constitution' and believed it would educate and inform Britain's colonial administrators. Gladwin's text would not be superseded for many decades, and it testifies to the quality of his scholarship and the contemporary concerns of the East India Company. Volume 1 explains the workings of the royal household and military offices, including details of the mint, treasury and harem, as well as building regulations.

Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara, in the Years 1843–1845
  • To Ascertain the Fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly
  • Volume 1
  • Joseph Wolff
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • Born in Franconia, the son of a rabbi, Joseph Wolff (1795–1862) was baptised in 1812, moved to England in 1819, and became a Christian missionary. He travelled widely in the Near East, Middle East and Central Asia, enduring shipwreck, robbery and disease. His Researches and Missionary Labours among the Jews, Mohammedans, and Other Sects (1835) and the miscellaneous Travels and Adventures (1861) are also reissued in this series. First published in 1845 and reissued here in the revised second edition of that year, this work records Wolff's journey to the Emirate of Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan) to investigate the disappearance of two British officers. Volume 1 begins with chapters covering Wolff's background and previous travels, before focusing on his mission to find the missing men, his initial investigations in Persia, and his arrival in Bukhara, noting details of the people and culture.

Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara, in the Years 1843–1845
  • To Ascertain the Fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly
  • Volume 2
  • Joseph Wolff
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • Born in Franconia, the son of a rabbi, Joseph Wolff (1795–1862) was baptised in 1812, moved to England in 1819, and became a Christian missionary. He travelled widely in the Near East, Middle East and Central Asia, enduring shipwreck, robbery and disease. His Researches and Missionary Labours among the Jews, Mohammedans, and Other Sects (1835) and the miscellaneous Travels and Adventures (1861) are also reissued in this series. First published in 1845 and reissued here in the revised second edition of that year, this work records Wolff's journey to the Emirate of Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan) to investigate the disappearance of two British officers. In Volume 2, Wolff offers further observations on the region's culture, religion and military history. He discovers that the missing men had been executed by one of the Emir's subordinates, Abdul Samut Khan, who also attempted to kill Wolff, though he narrowly escaped.

Letters Written in a Mahratta Camp During the Year 1809
  • Descriptive of the Characters, Manners, Domestic Habits, and Religious Ceremonies, of the Mahrattas
  • Thomas Duer Broughton
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1813
  • The purpose of this book, published in 1813 by Thomas Duer Broughton (1778–1835), is to provide an English audience with an accurate description of 'the character, manners, domestic habits and religious ceremonies of the Mahrattas'. Broughton, an army officer in the East India Company, first arrived in India while serving as a cadet in the Bengal establishment in 1795, and eventually rose to the positions of captain in 1805, major in 1816 and colonel in 1829. The book consists of a series of thirty-two letters addressed to his brother, and most of the letters describe the events and the environment of the Rajputana region, beginning with an account of a journey from Agra to Kerowli. The letters which follow all contain fascinating descriptions of festivals and other events, and cultural encounters of all kinds, painting a vivid portrait of life for the British in early nineteenth-century India.

The Code of Criminal Procedure Relating to Procedure in the Criminal Courts of British India
  • With Notes Containing the Opinions Delivered by All the Superior Local Courts
  • H. T. Prinsep
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    06 June 2013
    First published in:
    1869
  • Henry Thoby Prinsep (1792–1878), a colonial administrator who reached the highest rank in the East India Company and its successor, the Council of India, published this Code of Practice in 1866: the third edition of 1869, reissued here, was necessitated by new legislation in that year. (Prinsep's earlier work, Origin of the Sikh Power in the Punjab, is also reissued in this series.) In the preface to this work, written as a guide for local magistrates and administrators, Prinsep states his intent to present, in a convenient form, all the rules of procedure in the criminal courts of British India. Each stage of the process is annotated with explanatory material, and case law and precedents are also cited where appropriate. Appendices contain further relevant legislation, such as rules on extradition and the conduct of the police. An index of cases cited and a general index are also provided.

On the Education of the People of India
  • Charles Edward Trevelyan
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1838
  • Charles Edward Trevelyan (1807–1886) published Education of the People of India in 1838. The work is a rigorous defence of the educational reforms that took place in colonial India during the 1830s, which led to a western-based curriculum replacing traditional Indian learning. The work is a response to the arguments of orientalists such as H. H. Wilson (1786–1860), recently retired from government office in India, but still advocating an orientalist educational policy. In this work Trevelyan puts forward his arguments for the moral and intellectual advantages of English as the principle language of instruction and defends the government's resolution of March 1835 that specified that Indians should be educated by the study of European literature, culture and science. It was one of the most influential Anglicist tracts of the Indian educational debates, and it gives valuable insight into the ideas behind what became standard government educational policy.

The History of British India
  • Volume 1
  • James Mill
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    02 December 2010
    First published in:
    1817
  • James Mill's three volume History of British India was published from 1817 to 1818 and became an immediate success. A friend of Jeremy Bentham and a follower of utilitarianism, Mill focuses more on historical processes than human interest. He uses extensive sources rather than first-hand experience to create, as his preface claims, an 'objective' yet 'critical' history, often making harsh judgements of the country and its people within the context of a wider theoretical framework. He also criticises the British involvement in India and the process of conquest, colonization, and administration, the intention being to encourage the reader to a greater understanding of historical processes, ideas, and institutions with a view to encouraging thorough reform. Volume 1 examines the history from first encounters of the British in India to the formation of the Honourable East India Company in 1708, with studies of the Hindu and Muslim people and religions.

A Historical View of the Hindu Astronomy
  • From the Earliest Dawn of that Science in India to the Present Time
  • John Bentley
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    21 February 2013
    First published in:
    1825
  • Shrouded in poetry, the earliest accounts of Hindu astronomy can strike modern readers as obscure. They involve the marriage of the moon to twenty-seven princesses, a war between gods and giants, and shadows that give birth to planets. In this fascinating study, first published in Calcutta in 1823 and reissued here in the 1825 edition, John Bentley (c.1750–1824) strives to strip back the mythical aspects of the stories to reveal their foundations. He points out that early Hindu astronomers divided the night sky into twenty-seven sections; that a solar eclipse could have been described as an epic war between light and dark; and that Saturn is often observed in the Earth's shadow. Using data from modern astronomical tables, he dates events, texts and people, whether mythical or factual, as well as charting the history of Indian astronomy from its earliest records to its modern developments.

The Rise of Bombay
  • A Retrospect
  • Stephen Meredyth Edwardes
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1902
  • This work, reprinted from the 1901 Census of India Series in 1902, examines the growth of the great Indian port city, giving contemporary statistics as well as recounting its long history before and during British rule (the East India Company had begun trading there in the 1660s). The editor, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes (1873–1927), was a civil servant based in Bombay. Using sources from travellers' accounts to official documents, this work tells the story of Bombay, 'one of the most splendid of Imperial Cities', as Edwardes describes it. Starting in prehistoric times, he discusses the topography of the city, its prosperity through trade and its early rulers, before moving on to the significance of Hinduism and Islam, the arrival of the Portuguese and finally the establishment of British rule. Illustrated with maps and photographs, this work gives a vivid history of the development of one of India's most important cities.

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