View source for Rajasthan: History of Geographical Surveys

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This page is an extract from <br/>
ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES <br/>
OF <br/>
'''RAJASTHAN '''<br/>

OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN <br/>
RAJPUT STATES OF INDIA <br/>

By <br/>
LIEUT.-COL. JAMES TOD <br/>
Late Political Agent to the Western Rajput States <br/>

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by <br/>
WILLIAM CROOKE, CIE. <br/>
Hon. D.Sc. Oxon., B.A., F.R.A.l. <br/>
Late of the Indian Civil Service <br/>

In Three Volumes <br/>
VOL.I: GEOGRAPHY OF RAJASTHAN OR RAJPUTANA<br/>
[The Annals were completed in 1829]<br/>

HUMPHREY MILFORD <br/>
Oxford University Press <br/>
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York <br/>
Toronto Melbourne Bombay <br/>
1920 [The edition scanned] <br/>
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=History of Geographical Surveys=

The basis of this work is 
the geography of the country, the historical and statistical por-
tion being consequent and subordinate thereto. It was, indeed, 
originally designed to be essentially geographical ; but circum-
stances have rendered it impossible to execute the intended 
details, or even to make the map2  so perfect as the superabundant 
material at the command of the author might have enabled him 
to do ; a matter of regret to himself rather than of loss to the 
general reader, to whom geographic details, however important, 
are  usually dry and uninteresting. 

It was also intended to institute a comparison between the 
map and such remains of ancient geography as can be extracted 
from the Puranas and other Hindu authorities ; which, however, 
must be deferred to a future period, when the deficiency of the 
1[Rajputana, as now officially defined, lies between lat. 23° 3' and 30° 12' 
N., and long. 69° 30' and 78° 17' E., the total area, according to the Census 
Report, 1911, including Ajmer-Merwara, being 131,698 square miles.] 
2 Engraved by that meritorious artist Mr. Walker, engraver to the East 
India Company, who, I trust, will be able to make a fuller use of my materials 
hereafter. [This has been replaced by a modern map.] 
present rapid and general sketch may be supplied, should the 
author be enabled to resume his labours. 

The laborious research, in the course of which these data were 
accumulated, commenced in 1806. when the author was attached 
to the embassy sent, at the close of the Mahratta wars, to the 
court of Sindhia. This chieftain's army was then in Mewar, at 
that period almost a terra incognita, the position of whose two 
capitals, Udaipur and Chitor, in the best existing maps, was pre-
cisely reversed [3] ; that is, Chitor was inserted S.E. of Udaipur 
instead of E.N.E., a proof of the scanty knowledge possessed at 
that period. 

In other respects there was almost a total blank. In the maps 
prior to 1806 nearly all the western and central States of Rajasthan 
will be found wanting. It had been imagined, but a little time 
before, that the rivers had a southerly course into the Nerbudda ; 
a notion corrected by the father of Indian geography, the distin-
guished Rennell.1 

This blank the author filled up ; and in 1815, for the first 
time, the geography of Rajasthan was put into combined form 
and presented to the Marquess of Hastings, on the eve of a general 
war, when the labour of ten years was amply rewarded by its 
becoming in part the foundation of that illustrious commander's 
plans of the campaign. It is a duty owing to himself to state that 
every map, without exception, printed since this period has its 
foundation, as regards Central and Western India, in the labours 
of the author.2 

1 [James Uennell, 1742-1830.] 

2 When the war of 1817 broke out, copies of my map on a reduced scale 
were sent to all the divisions of the armies in the field, and came into posses
sion of many of the staff. Transcripts were made which were brought to 
Europe, and portions introduced into every recent map of India. One map 
has, indeed, been given, in a manner to induce a supposition that the 
furnisher of the materials was the author of them. It has fulfilled a pre
diction of the Marquess of Hastings, who, foreseeing the impossibility of 
such materials remaining private property, " and the danger of their being 
appropriated by others," and desirous that the author should derive the 
full advantage of his labours, had it signified that the claims for recompense, 
on the records of successive governments, should not be deferred. It will 
not be inferred the author is surprised at what he remarks. While he 
claims priority for himself, lie is the last person to wish to see a halt in 
"For emulation has a thousand sons." 
4 GEOGRAPHY OF RAJASTHAN