A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of the District, Or Zila, of Dinajpur/Preface
PREFACE.
In 1807, the Directors of the East India Company having recommended that a full and accurate Statistical Survey of the territories under the immediate authority of the Presidency of Fort William should be executed, for the purpose of obtaining such information on the real state of the country as might be productive of future improvement and advantage, the Governor General Lord Minto resolved, that Dr. Francis Buchanan, whose abilities and experience were justly considered by the court to qualify him in a peculiar degree for such an investigation, should be appointed to this duty.
The extent and variety of the objects to which his attention was to be directed, will be understood from the following extract from the instructions drawn up by the Secretary to Government for his guidance:
“Your inquiries are to extend throughout the whole of the territories subject to the immediate authority of the Presidency of Fort William.
“The Governor General in Council is of opinion, that these inquiries should commence in the district of Rungpúr, and that from thence you should proceed to the westward through each district on the north side of the Ganges, until you reach the western boundary of the Honorable Company’s provinces. You will then proceed towards the south and east, until you have examined all the districts on the south side of the great river, and afterwards proceed to Dacca, and the other districts towards the eastern frontier.
“It is also desirable, that you should extend your inquiries to the adjacent countries, and to those petty states with which the British Government has no regular intercourse. In performing this duty, however, you are prohibited from quitting the Company’s territories, and are directed to confine your inquiries to consulting such of the natives of those countries as you may meet with, or natives of the British territories who have visited the countries in question.
“Your inquiries should be particularly directed to the following subjects, which you are to examine with as much accuracy as local circumstances will admit.
“I. A Topographical account of each district, including the extent, soil, plains, mountains, rivers, harbours, towns, and subdivisions; together with an account of the air and weather, and whatever you may discover worthy of remark concerning the history and antiquities of the country.
“II. The Condition of the Inhabitants; their number, the state of their food, clothing, and habitations; the peculiar diseases to which they are liable; together with the means that have been taken or may be proposed to remove them; the education of youth; and the provision or resources for the indigent.
“III. Religion; the number, progress, and most remarkable customs of each different sect or tribe of which the population consists; together with the emoluments and power which their priests and chiefs enjoy; and what circumstances exist or may probably arise that might attach them to Government, or render them disaffected.
“IV. The Natural Productions of the Country, animal, vegetable, and mineral; especially such as are made use of in diet, in medicine, in commerce, or in arts and manufactures. The following objects deserve your particular attention:
“1st. The fisheries, their extent, the manner in which they are conducted, and the obstacles that appear to exist against their improvement and extension.
“2nd. The forests, of which you will endeavour to ascertain the extent and situation, with respect to water-conveyance. You will investigate the kinds of trees which they contain, together with their comparative value, and you will point out such means, as occur to you, for increasing the number of the more valuable kinds, or for introducing new ones that may be still more useful.
“3rd. The mines and quarries are objects of particular concern. You will investigate their produce, the manner of working them, and the state of the people employed.
“V. Agriculture, under which head your inquiries are to be directed to the following points:
“1st. The different kinds of vegetables cultivated, whether for food, forage, medicine, or intoxication, or as raw materials for the arts: the modes of cultivation adopted for each kind; the seasons when they are sown and reaped; the value of the produce of a given extent of land cultivated with each kind; the profit arising to the cultivator from each, and the manner in which each is prepared and fitted for market. Should it appear that any new object of cultivation could be introduced with advantage, you will suggest the means by which its introduction may be encouraged.
“2nd. The implements of husbandry employed, with the defects and advantages of each, and suggestions for the introduction of new ones, that may be more effectual.
“3rd. The manure employed for the soil, especially the means used for irrigation.
“4th. The means used for excluding floods and inundations, with such remarks, as may occur to you, on the defects in their management, and the remedies that might be employed.
“5th. The different breeds of the cattle, poultry, and other domestic animals reared by the natives. The manner in which they are bred and kept; the profits derived from rearing and maintaining them; the kinds used in labour; whether the produce of the country be sufficient, without importation, to answer the demand, or to enable the farmer to export; and whether any kinds not now reared might be advantageously introduced.
“6th. Fences, the various kinds, that are used, or that might be introduced, with observations concerning the utility of this part of agriculture in the present state of the country.
“7th. The state of farms; their usual size, the stock required, with the manner in which it is procured; the expense of management; the rent, whether paid in specie, or in kind; the wages and condition of farming servants and labourers employed in husbandry; tenures by which farms are held, with their comparative advantages, and the means which, in your opinion, may be employed to extend and improve the cultivation of the country.
“8th. The state of the landed property, and of the tenures by which it is held, in so far as these seem to affect agriculture.
“VI. The progress made by the natives in the fine arts, in the common arts, and the state of the manufactures; you will describe their architecture, sculptures, and paintings, and inquire into the different processes and machinery used by their workmen, and procure an account of the various kinds and amount of goods manufactured in each district. It should also be an object of your attention to ascertain the ability of the country to produce the raw materials used in them; and what proportion, if any, is necessary to be imported from other countries, and under what advantages, or disadvantages, such importation now is, or might be made; you will also ascertain how the necessary capital is procured, the situation of the artists and manufactures, the mode of providing their goods, the usual rates of their labour; any particular advantages they may enjoy, their comparative affluence with respect to the cultivators of the land, their domestic usages, the nature of their sales, and the regulations respecting their markets. Should it appear to you that any new art or manufacture might be introduced with advantage into any district, you are to point out in what manner you think it may be accomplished.
“VII. Commerce; the quantity of goods exported and imported in each district; the manner of conducting sales, especially at fairs and markets; the regulation of money, weights, and measures; the nature of the conveyance of goods by land and water, and the means by which this may be facilitated, especially, by making or repairing roads.
“In addition to the foregoing objects of inquiry, you will take every opportunity of forwarding to the Company’s Botanical Garden at this presidency, whatever useful or rare and curious plants and seeds you may be enabled to acquire in the progress of your researches, with such observations as may be necessary for their culture.”
In pursuance with these instructions, Dr. Buchanan was occupied, during the years 1807, 8, 9, 10, and 11 in a minute survey of the districts of Dinájpur, Rangpur, Púraniya, Bhagelpúr, Behár, and the city of Patna, Sháhabád, and Gorakhpur. Upon each of these districts he submitted a voluminous report, accompanied with statistical tables, maps, and drawings, and where an opportunity was afforded him of collecting it, with collateral information illustrative of the people, or of the geography and natural history, of the neighbouring countries; thus the report on Púraniya embraces an account of Nipal, and of the Sikkim country; the report on Bhagulpúr contains vocabularies of the languages spoken by the hill tribes of that district, compared with the Hindí; and that of Behar exhibits a similar vocabulary of the Dhangar and Bengalí dialects.
The original records, occupying twenty-five folio volumes in manuscript, were transmitted by the Indian Government to the Honorable Court of Directors; a copy of the whole having been previously made, and deposited in the office of the Chief Secretary at Calcutta. Duplicates of the drawings and maps, however, were unfortunately not preserved with the rest, probably from the difficulty at that time of getting them executed in India.
It is matter of surprise and regret, that these valuable documents were not given to the public when stamped with the interest of originality and immediate applicability to the actual circumstances of the districts, and when they would have proved of great utility to the public officers of Government. Although, however, no immediate steps were taken for their publication in an entire form, we learn from the preface to Hamilton’s Hindustan, that the Honorable Court allowed the author of that useful compilation the freest access to the manuscripts of Doctor Buchanan, and it must be confessed that much of the information they contain has been condensed into the body of that work, throughout the pages of which continual references will be seen to the Buchanan manuscripts.
The readers of the Journal of the Asiatic Society are aware of the manner in which the arrangement for their publication in the present form originated. Captain J. D. Herbert, Editor of the Gleanings in Science, being anxious to secure to his subscribers a privilege which should render the support of his journal less burdensome to the few and scattered cultivators of scientific knowledge in India, negociated with the Government for permission to circulate the work free of postage on condition of devoting monthly a certain number of pages (stipulated at not less than eight) to the publication “of valuable official documents, having reference to public utility.” The privilege was accorded by the Government; and the first volume of the reports, being the statistic account of Dinájpur, was placed in his hands, by Mr. G. Swinton, Chief Secretary to Government, who had been warmly interested in the promotion of the scheme. The Editor of the Gleanings, in fulfilling the conditions of his agreement, wisely determined to print the documents in a separate form, rather than incorporate detached portions of them as separate articles in the body of his journal. “On a full consideration of the subject,” he says, in his notice to Subscribers, dated April, 1832, “we deemed the latter course the preferable one; particularly, considering the very full information contained in these journals, and that it related to the least known districts, as well as the great pains taken in the arrangement of all the particulars. It was thought that to break down and throw into detached pieces a work which the author had taken so much trouble to systematize, would be to lose one of the principal features of excellence which distinguish these records.”
It has necessarily occupied many months to complete the present volume, under such circumstances; but the delay will not have caused much inconvenience, if the subscribers to the Gleanings and the Journal have attended to the injunction, frequently repeated, that the scattered sheets should be reserved with care to be put together in the form of a separate volume.
It will be remarked, that many plates are referred to in the text: the drawings alluded to, as has already been stated, are in possession of the Honorable Court of Directors. It was thought better to preserve the references as they stood in the manuscript, in case the Honorable Court should hereafter be induced to publish them, either in a separate form, or of a size adapted to the present volume.
The interest which the work may command among the Subscribers to the Journal, and with the public at large, will determine how far it may be advisable to continue the publication of the remainder of the series, or whether they may for the present give way to other “official documents,” of a more exclusively scientific nature.