INDIA - BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliography (Further Reading)
(1) History. Orme’s Indostan. Wilson’s edition of Mill’s History of India, 9 vol., 1840-48, is still the standard work on the general history of India; but it is practically superseded, with regard to special periods, by a number of less known works. Mountstuart Elphinstone’s History of India (Professor Cowell’s edition, 1866) deals with the Mahometan period, Sir Henry Elliot’s History of India (8 vol., 1867-77) treats of the earlier centuries of that period as total by the native historians. Mr Grant-Duff’s History of the Marhattáns, Cunningham’s History of the Sikhs, Wilk’s History of Mysore, and Dr Buchanan’s Journey through Malabar and Kanara are the best general works with regard to the native history of southern India. Todd’s Rájásthán occupies the same position with reference to the great tract of which it treats. But in these departments also the process of subdivision has taken place, and different periods or aspects are now treated elaborately by specialists.
(2) Aitchison’s Treaties and Engagements, 7 vols., require a place by themselves.
(3) The following are the leading works on the various periods, provinces, and races:—M’ Crindle’s Ancient India of Megasthenes and Arrian, and his Navigation of the Erythraean Sea; Dr. J. Muir’s Original Sanskrit Texts, 5 invaluable vols. 1868-72; Webers’ History of Indian Literature, 1878; Professor Max Müller’s History of Sanskrit Literature, and various works and essays; Professor Dowson’s Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology 1879; Sherring’s Hindu Tribes and Castes; Fergusson’s Tree and Serpent Worship, Indian Architecture, Cave Temples &c.; the Reports of the Archaeological Survey, by General Cunningham and Mr Burgessl Beame’s edition of Sir H. Elliot’s Races of India; Ward’s Hindus; Abbé Dubois’s Manners and Customs of India; Bishop Heber’s Journey; Mrs Manning Ancient and Mediaeval India; Rájendra Lála Mitra’s Orissa, and series of valuable antiquarian works; General Cunningham’s Ancient Geography of India, 1871; B.H. Hodgson’s Essays on Indian Subjects, 2 vol., 1880, and other works, specially on Nepál and Tibet; Bishop Caldwell’s Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, the standard authority on southern India; Colonel Dalton’s Ethnology of Bengal; R. Cust’s Linguistic and Oriental Essays, 1880; H. H. Wil-on’s great series of works; Sir Henry Summer Maine’s Village Communities; Birdwood’s Indian Arts.
(4) Works of a more local character:—The Statistical Account of Bengal and Assam, with the Gazetteers or District Manuals for Bombay, Madras, the North-West the Central Provinces, Rájputána, Mysore, British Burmah, Ajmír, and other provinces; Colonel Malleson’s and Mr Mackay’s works on the native states and princes; Mr Lepel Griffin’s Punjab Rájás; Stewart’s History of Bengal; Dr Hooker’s Himálayan Journals; Vigne’s Travels in Kashmir, and Ghazni, Kabul, and Afghánistan; Ferrier, History of the Afgháns; Conolly’s Overland Journey to in the Olden Time, and his other valuable works; Malleson’s History of the French in India; Hunter’s Annals of Rural Bengal, Orissa, and Indian Musalmáns.
(5) Among works bearing on British rule—The Fifth Report on the Affairs of the East India Company; selection from the Calcutta Gazette in the last century; Kaye’s Administration of the East India Company; Keene’s Fall of the Mughal Empire; Owen’s India on the Eve of the British Conquests; Thorne’s War in India, 1802-1806; Malcolm’s India, 1811; Prinsep’s British India, 1813-18; Kaye’s Sepoy War, and continuation by Malleson; Fawcett’s Indian Finance.
(6) Short works on Indian history and geography, by Roper Lethbridge, Pope, Marshman, Wheeler, and Meadows Taylor.
(7) Biographies of Clive, Warren Hastings, Sir Philip Francis, Lord Teignmouth, Malcolm, Minto, Metcalfe, Combermere, Sir Henry Lawrence, and Sir Herbert Edwardes; also the Wellington Despatches referring to India, by Sindney Owen; Lord Ellenborough’s Letters; and Kaye’s admirable Indian biographies.
(8) In fiction and poetry, Edwin Arnold’s Light of Asia stands first. Meadows Taylor’s Confessions of a Thug, and Tara; Pandurang Hari; H. Cunningham’s Dustypore; and The Afghan Knife, form well-known examples of the Anglo-Indian novel.
(9) Indian official reports:—Annual Administration Reports of the various presidencies and provinces; District Settlement Reports in the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, and the Punjab; General Reports of the Board of Revenue, Madras; Survey and Settlement Reports of Bombay; Census Reports for the various presidencies and provinces in 1871-72, and their condensation, The Memorandum on the Census of British India (1871-72), presented to parliament in 1875; Annual Reports on the Trade and Navigation of British India; Report of the Bengal Royal Commission, 1880.
(10) Parliamentary Blue Books:—The Annual Statistical Abstract relating to British India; Annual East India Finance and Revenue Accounts; Statements on the Material and Moral Progress of India. (W.W.H.)
The author of this article was Sir W. W. Hunter, LL.D., C.I.E., Director-General of Statistics to the Government of India.
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