The Survey of the districts of Bihar, Patna, Shahabad, Bhagalpur, Gorakhpur, Dinajpur, Puraniah, Rungpur and Assam, forming the Eastern part of India and containing upwards of 70,000 square miles was undertaken and partly executed by Dr. Francisis Buchanan, on the orders of East India Company in 1806. The collected material of the Survey which could not be completed by the learned scholar was deposited with East India House and it might have remained there forever had not Mr. Montgomery Martin approached the authorities and obtained permission to examine the manuscript. The examination convinced Mr. Martin of the richness of the material and anormisty of the subject and he undertook to complete the Survey, which took him seven long and labouring years.
The whole Survey of the Eastern India, the kind of which has never been attempted eversince, was completed by Mr. Martin in five volumes, covering every aspect of life the people lived, which includes varied subjects as topographical account of the each district, the condition of the inhabitants, their religions and customs of each different sect or tribe, the natural production of the country animals, vegetables and minerals, the forest, the mines and quarries, the agriculture, the animal husbandry, the state of farms and landed property, the fine arts- which includes paintings, architecture, dance, drama, etc. etc; Each district has a map illustrating roads, rivers, important towns, mountains etc. and each volume has multiple illustrations showing a varied life of the people. Each volume also has appendixes and statistical view of the district.
The publishers feel pleasure in issuing these volumes under their prestigious series, STUDIES IN INDIAN HISTORY and are sure that this mine of information shall be of immense use not only to students and scholars of history but shall be of much interest and use to the district and town officers. |
