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A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar
In 1800 Lord Wellesley, the British Governor General of India, appointed the surgeon and botanist Francis Buchanan (1762–1829) to conduct a survey of the kingdom of Mysore in the south of the country, which had recently been annexed by the East India Company. In the resulting three-volume report, first published in 1807, Buchanan (later known as Francis Hamilton) records the physical and human geography of this large area of southern India. He describes the agriculture, arts and commerce, indigenous religions and customs, natural history and society and antiquities of the regions through which he travelled, and illustrates his text with a map and engravings. Buchanan's journey began and ended at the British stronghold of Madras, and criss-crossed the whole of Mysore including a visit to the strategically important city of Sira and a long trip from south to north through the western coastal regions of Malabar and Canara.
1688 pages, Paperback
First published June 9, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 29, 2011
It's a fairly small book, booklet even - couple of hours at most unless you start analyzing the tables in detail. (Actually this maybe just the bit available on Google books)
To summarize:
This is an assessment of the lands captured from Tipu after the British victory.
After reading this I've come to realize that a largely unreported benefit of pan-Indian Brit rule is they were able to disseminate farming best practices, and also extract better taxes than other rulers.
They had averaged metrics for what yield of rice or other foodcrop per acre was legitimate to expect, and when there was variance they were quick to correct mistakes, pickup ideas or spot cheats.
The British taxation regime seems largely geared towards maximizing production, whereas local rulers were typically granting favors or protecting caste/religious interests via taxation.
The author is diligent and offers translations of terms in 4-5 local languages always, and seems to have worked rather hard to put this together. He doesn't take the local word for any of the data, stepping into the fields instead and taking his own measurements, thus the book is littered with tables of agri production.
Ironically the British being well traveled, and uninhibited about talking to various castes seem to have gained a wider knowledge than most Indians about India.
You get a very good sense for just how prevalent caste was in all manner of decisions of Indian society, and it's possible to see from the occupational breakdown of local populations offered that Indian society was largely indolent and the Brahmins seem to be the elite beyond all reasonableness; though they aren't a small elite - the Brahmins are ~30-40% of society.
Slavery in India isn't widely spoken of, but it's quite clearly shown here that they existed in large numbers and were the bulk of farm labor, and the second largest population after the Brahmins.
Polyandry and polygamy seem common place though the gender ratio is badly skewed towards more males. Given the prevalence of polygamy, and the rules of adultery generally favorable towards the higher castes it's obvious that higher castes again enjoyed vast sexual privileges too.
Indian history paints Tipu as a national hero for fighting the British, but the other side of the story is that he seems to have been bad news for the locals, destroying foodcrops and temples, and having a governance regime that was decidedly more chaotic than the Brits.
Overall, given it's a private account meant more as an internal memo of the Raj, to his superiors the note is quite objective, and trustworthy.
It's also quite dry and skim worthy in many parts.
To summarize:
This is an assessment of the lands captured from Tipu after the British victory.
After reading this I've come to realize that a largely unreported benefit of pan-Indian Brit rule is they were able to disseminate farming best practices, and also extract better taxes than other rulers.
They had averaged metrics for what yield of rice or other foodcrop per acre was legitimate to expect, and when there was variance they were quick to correct mistakes, pickup ideas or spot cheats.
The British taxation regime seems largely geared towards maximizing production, whereas local rulers were typically granting favors or protecting caste/religious interests via taxation.
The author is diligent and offers translations of terms in 4-5 local languages always, and seems to have worked rather hard to put this together. He doesn't take the local word for any of the data, stepping into the fields instead and taking his own measurements, thus the book is littered with tables of agri production.
Ironically the British being well traveled, and uninhibited about talking to various castes seem to have gained a wider knowledge than most Indians about India.
You get a very good sense for just how prevalent caste was in all manner of decisions of Indian society, and it's possible to see from the occupational breakdown of local populations offered that Indian society was largely indolent and the Brahmins seem to be the elite beyond all reasonableness; though they aren't a small elite - the Brahmins are ~30-40% of society.
Slavery in India isn't widely spoken of, but it's quite clearly shown here that they existed in large numbers and were the bulk of farm labor, and the second largest population after the Brahmins.
Polyandry and polygamy seem common place though the gender ratio is badly skewed towards more males. Given the prevalence of polygamy, and the rules of adultery generally favorable towards the higher castes it's obvious that higher castes again enjoyed vast sexual privileges too.
Indian history paints Tipu as a national hero for fighting the British, but the other side of the story is that he seems to have been bad news for the locals, destroying foodcrops and temples, and having a governance regime that was decidedly more chaotic than the Brits.
Overall, given it's a private account meant more as an internal memo of the Raj, to his superiors the note is quite objective, and trustworthy.
It's also quite dry and skim worthy in many parts.
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June 18, 2020Thesis reading: A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar.
I am working on a biography and analysis of life of physican-turned-surveyor Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. The man was a valuable addition to orientalist wisdom. His observations are used by historians to this day to study colonialism but also natural history, Buddhism, caste and religion, and especially economic matters. The man is an intriguing case of passion, brilliance, opportunism and resentment.
The book I completed this morning is the three volume survey of Tipu Sultan's territories which he was dispatched to study in 1805 by the then Governor-General Lord Wellesley. Between 1807 and 1808 he completed the survey. The book appears for the most dry, banal, and extremely pedantic. Buchanan is obsessed with soils, crops, and indigenous technologies. But he has very human takes on religion. He dislikes Brahmins of all proportions and species. He shows additional interest for Jains at Shravanabelagola and Karkala just to build a foil against Brahminism. In this time of domesticity, Buchanan gave an opportunity to at least virtually visit the backwaters of Kerala, my favourite temple town of Halebid, walk the stretch of the Kaveri, and visit the Mathas of the Madhvas.
I am working on a biography and analysis of life of physican-turned-surveyor Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. The man was a valuable addition to orientalist wisdom. His observations are used by historians to this day to study colonialism but also natural history, Buddhism, caste and religion, and especially economic matters. The man is an intriguing case of passion, brilliance, opportunism and resentment.
The book I completed this morning is the three volume survey of Tipu Sultan's territories which he was dispatched to study in 1805 by the then Governor-General Lord Wellesley. Between 1807 and 1808 he completed the survey. The book appears for the most dry, banal, and extremely pedantic. Buchanan is obsessed with soils, crops, and indigenous technologies. But he has very human takes on religion. He dislikes Brahmins of all proportions and species. He shows additional interest for Jains at Shravanabelagola and Karkala just to build a foil against Brahminism. In this time of domesticity, Buchanan gave an opportunity to at least virtually visit the backwaters of Kerala, my favourite temple town of Halebid, walk the stretch of the Kaveri, and visit the Mathas of the Madhvas.
December 29, 2011
It's a fairly small book, booklet even - couple of hours at most unless you start analyzing the tables in detail. (Actually this maybe just the bit available on Google books)
To summarize:
This is an assessment of the lands captured from Tipu after the British victory.
After reading this I've come to realize that a largely unreported benefit of pan-Indian Brit rule is they were able to disseminate farming best practices, and also extract better taxes than other rulers.
They had averaged metrics for what yield of rice or other foodcrop per acre was legitimate to expect, and when there was variance they were quick to correct mistakes, pickup ideas or spot cheats.
The British taxation regime seems largely geared towards maximizing production, whereas local rulers were typically granting favors or protecting caste/religious interests via taxation.
The author is diligent and offers translations of terms in 4-5 local languages always, and seems to have worked rather hard to put this together. He doesn't take the local word for any of the data, stepping into the fields instead and taking his own measurements, thus the book is littered with tables of agri production.
Ironically the British being well traveled, and uninhibited about talking to various castes seem to have gained a wider knowledge than most Indians about India.
You get a very good sense for just how prevalent caste was in all manner of decisions of Indian society, and it's possible to see from the occupational breakdown of local populations offered that Indian society was largely indolent and the Brahmins seem to be the elite beyond all reasonableness; though they aren't a small elite - the Brahmins are ~30-40% of society.
Slavery in India isn't widely spoken of, but it's quite clearly shown here that they existed in large numbers and were the bulk of farm labor, and the second largest population after the Brahmins.
Polyandry and polygamy seem common place though the gender ratio is badly skewed towards more males. Given the prevalence of polygamy, and the rules of adultery generally favorable towards the higher castes it's obvious that higher castes again enjoyed vast sexual privileges too.
Indian history paints Tipu as a national hero for fighting the British, but the other side of the story is that he seems to have been bad news for the locals, destroying foodcrops and temples, and having a governance regime that was decidedly more chaotic than the Brits.
Overall, given it's a private account meant more as an internal memo of the Raj, to his superiors the note is quite objective, and trustworthy.
It's also quite dry and skim worthy in many parts.
To summarize:
This is an assessment of the lands captured from Tipu after the British victory.
After reading this I've come to realize that a largely unreported benefit of pan-Indian Brit rule is they were able to disseminate farming best practices, and also extract better taxes than other rulers.
They had averaged metrics for what yield of rice or other foodcrop per acre was legitimate to expect, and when there was variance they were quick to correct mistakes, pickup ideas or spot cheats.
The British taxation regime seems largely geared towards maximizing production, whereas local rulers were typically granting favors or protecting caste/religious interests via taxation.
The author is diligent and offers translations of terms in 4-5 local languages always, and seems to have worked rather hard to put this together. He doesn't take the local word for any of the data, stepping into the fields instead and taking his own measurements, thus the book is littered with tables of agri production.
Ironically the British being well traveled, and uninhibited about talking to various castes seem to have gained a wider knowledge than most Indians about India.
You get a very good sense for just how prevalent caste was in all manner of decisions of Indian society, and it's possible to see from the occupational breakdown of local populations offered that Indian society was largely indolent and the Brahmins seem to be the elite beyond all reasonableness; though they aren't a small elite - the Brahmins are ~30-40% of society.
Slavery in India isn't widely spoken of, but it's quite clearly shown here that they existed in large numbers and were the bulk of farm labor, and the second largest population after the Brahmins.
Polyandry and polygamy seem common place though the gender ratio is badly skewed towards more males. Given the prevalence of polygamy, and the rules of adultery generally favorable towards the higher castes it's obvious that higher castes again enjoyed vast sexual privileges too.
Indian history paints Tipu as a national hero for fighting the British, but the other side of the story is that he seems to have been bad news for the locals, destroying foodcrops and temples, and having a governance regime that was decidedly more chaotic than the Brits.
Overall, given it's a private account meant more as an internal memo of the Raj, to his superiors the note is quite objective, and trustworthy.
It's also quite dry and skim worthy in many parts.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews