RAJPUTANA : Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series

RAJPUTANA : Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series

Erskine compilation of essays ‘Rajputana’ published in the Imperial Gazette of India series has been for over a century a reliable reference book for researchers in the field of history. Not only has he specified his sources, but also acknowledge’ the contribution of those scholars who helped in the routing of the Gazette. In the brief prefatory remarks, Pandit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha has been given credit for the entire history. Similarly, the assistance rendered by scholars of Geology and Botany has also been acknowledged.
A special feature of Erskine’s Gazette is that taking, Rajputana, Rajasthan, and Rajwara as a unit, he has discussed the situation, geographical boundaries and features and climatic conditions from the time of the Maurya’s to the advent of the British. Within this span of time, he has discussed the religious movements, population, social conditions and customs, the condition of peasants and their problems, livestock, government, administration, household industries, trade and commerce, communication and transportation, defence, judiciary, etc. Besides the famines of 1818, 1868, 1877, 1891, 1895, 1899 and 1901-02, their causes, the measures to overcome the calamity, have also been discussed.