Murray's Guide to Madras and Bombay
Presidencies for 1859 is in many ways the first modern guide book
to India. However, it describes a very different India from that
seen in the last quarter of the 19th century. It also has numerous
features which distinguish it from later travel guides, such as
advice on arriving in Madras where is says the best thing to do
is "to get into a palankeen and be carried to the club, if
a bachelor; or, if travelling with ladies, to some friend's house.
There are, indeed, hotels which may be repaired to as a dernier
ressort." (p. 21.) It was followed later by handbooks
for Bengal (1882) and Punjab and the North West Frontier Provinces
(1883) and then the first Handbook for the whole of India (1892).
The forerunners of this work were Captain Williamson's East
India Vade Mecum (1810) and a revised edition of that work by
John Gilchrist (1825).
Bibliographic Details
Author: Edward Eastwick
Title: A HANDBOOK FOR INDIA:- PART 1.- MADRAS
Publisher: John Murray
Place: London
Date: 1859
Author: Edward Eastwick
Title: A HANDBOOK FOR INDIA:- PART 2.- BOMBAY
Publisher: John Murray
Place: London
Date: 1859
About the book: an Introduction by Anita C. Ray
The Handbook falls into four main sections, a lengthy
but fascinating general introduction
of 120 pages, followed by discrete accounts of the Presidencies of Madras, Bombay and Bengal. The inscription leaves us in no doubt as to the author�s aim: �this [is
an] attempt to make India better known to Englishmen.� The work thus encompasses a vast and fascinating range of topics, including a recommended reading
list for intending travellers, a comprehensive account of the journey from Southampton to Bombay, meticulous descriptions of acceptable dress codes for European males and females and an exposition
on �the Manners of the Natives!� The volume also provides glowing
descriptions of Indian scenery and architecture, a somewhat amusing
perspective on bathing, exercise, essential medications and the
consumption of alcohol in the tropics, maps and plans of important
towns, helpful tips on Indian overland routes, the pronunciation
and spelling of Indian names, and a useful inventory of crucial
Indian words. Such a mine of information on
every conceivable subject pertaining to India ensured the Handbook a wide readership
in 19th century England, where it was rapidly acclaimed an indispensable reference guide for all
travellers and army personnel. Today, the chief scholarly value
of the book lies in its construction of Indian history, politics
and culture from a 19th century European frame of reference.
About the author
Although the book is widely referred to as Murray�s Handbook, in fact the author was Edward Backhouse Eastwick, a
distinguished British diplomat and scholar. Born in Berkshire in 1814 of Anglo-Indian parentage, Eastwick�s family enjoyed
close connections with the East India Company. Indeed his brother, Captain William Joseph Eastwick,
to whom Edward dedicates the volume, was one
of the Company�s respected directors. However, it was Edward�s educational
background, work, life experiences, extensive travels and conspicuous
linguistic skills, as much as his home environment, that equipped
him admirably for the task of writing
the guide.
Immediately he completed his education at Charterhouse and Merton College, Oxford, Edward joined the Bombay infantry as a cadet (1836). His proficiency
in Indian languages rapidly propelled him out of military service
and into the political arena in Kathiawar and Sindh. Unfortunately, ill health eventually �forced him to return
to England, where he accepted the position of Professor of Hindustani at the East
India Company�s College in Haileybury (1845). Several years later,
he became Assistant Political Secretary at the India Office (1859),
and the following year agreed to become Secretary of Legation to
the Court of Persia (1860-63). Other highlights of his celebrated
career include his work as private secretary to Lord Cranbourne,
Marquis of Salisbury (1866), and his appointment to the House of
Commons as conservative member for Penryn and Falmouth (1868-74). Eastwick died at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, in 1883.
Edward Eastwick translated a significant number of German, Urdu, Hindustani
and Persian books and wrote several original works. Arguably, his
most acclaimed publications include his translation from Persian
of the Gulistan (�Rose Garden�) of Sa�di (1852), a translation
from German of Bopp�s Comparative Grammar (1856) and Shiller�s
Revolt of the Netherlands (1844), his Concise Grammar
of Hindustani (1847 and 1858), and A Handbook for India
(1859). He ultimately published separate Handbooks for Madras (2nd ed., 1879), Bombay (2nd ed., 1881), Bengal
(1882), and Panjab (1883).
Design issues
Wherever possible, we have
retained the original format of the book, reproducing each page
of the original document as a single HTML page. Similarly, we have
preserved Murray�s headings, page numbers, bold or italic type and 19th century
English spelling, such as �shew� for �show.� However, in a few instances,
where the 1859 format was beyond the capability of our software,
we made certain adjustments.
- We did not perpetuate
diacritical marks, as these were difficult to recognize during
the OCR process. Those wishing to view original diacritics can refer to the
image files.
- In the HTML format, we
revised the layout of certain lists and tables.
- Whereas Murray employs several different print types and sizes, we restricted our
Word document to a single font type and size, namely, Times New
Roman, size 12 .
Credits and Acknowledgements
Credits
This work was selected by Peter
Friedlander of La Trobe University and the OCR work on the text
was undertaken by Anita C. Ray, Adam Bowles, Lisa Smith and
Perry Avdi. It proved difficult to OCR. The reasons for this
were three fold. First, there were problems due to the ink not
printing clearly on the mid 19th century wood pulp paper. Second
the fonts were very unclear in the orginal and many of the characters
poorly distinguished, from the viewpoint of an OCR program.
Third, the scanned images were made with an overhead document
scanner which was not focused as sharply as perhaps it could
have been. These factors made it hard for the OCR program to
decipher the text, so a lot of it had to be very carefully proof
read. There were also lots of problems in laying out the tables
in it in HTML which posed interesting challenges.
Acknowledgement
The originals of the documents are
in the La Trobe Collection of
The State Library of Victoria who have given permission
for the images of its pages to be reproduced on this site.
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