(C) "Manuscript map by Dr. Buchanan Hamilton. Drawn in about 1814. No. 4. District of Shahabad. Scale about 11 miles to 1 inch; size 12 inches by 11." Title on Map, in Buchanan's handwriting, "Sketch of the district of Shahabad". Scale of miles drawn on map. On the tracing, 60 miles = 5.18 inches, or 11.58 miles to one inch. The small variations in scale can likewise be explained by unequal shrinkage of these tracings, and the original maps were evidently superimposable on Rennell's own. It is hardly likely that all of these maps were drawn in or about 1814, as stated, for Buchanan was busy on the survey of Gorakhpur during that year, and left India early in February 1815. It is much more probable that each map was drawn at his headquarters immediately after finishing the tour of the district concerned, and that it was used for the general geographical description contained in the Report, such as the courses of the various rivers, etc., much of which has been omitted in Martin's abridgment. If so, the Bhagalpur map must have been drawn at Monghyr in 1811, the Patna-Gaya map at Patna in 1812, and the Shahabad map at Chunar in 1813. Buchanan's opinion of the ordinary roads in Bihar was by no means high, as numerous entries in his Journals indicate; and his maps show none of those between various places which are given by Rennell, but in all other respects the details which they contain are fuller as well as more accurate. The only names written on the maps themselves are those of the rivers and their tributaries, every one of which is thus distinguished. In order to avoid the confusion which would have been caused by attempting to add further lettering to maps drawn on so small a scale, the method which he adopted as regards other particulars is the following: Hills are shown in their proper position and approximate outlines. Their names, so far as the Bhagalpur and Patna maps are concerned, can be ascertained by reference to separate maps of the Hills drawn on a larger scale (about two miles to an inch). The corresponding map of the Hills of Shahabad cannot now be traced, if it ever existed. Thana boundaries are drawn on the maps, and distinguished from one another by coloured fringes, while the Thanas themselves are indicated by roman numerals. Within each Thana the position of the chief villages or market places is shown by small circles and arabic numerals. These numbers refer to an "Index to the Map" of each district which forms one of the (unpublished) Appendices to the corresponding Report. Each Index further contains under every Thana and market place a list of merchants and petty dealers, as shown in the following extract from the Index to the Map of Bhagalpur :IX.-Division under Thanah Mallepur : 50 Dealers in grain, salt, catechu and cotton wool, etc. (Bepari or Mahajan), 2 have capitals of Rs. 100 each, 48 have from Rs. 10 to Rs. 200. 10 Persons who import cotton, wool and cloths and retail themselves, capital from Rs. 50 to Rs. 200. 5 Dealers in grain, salt, drugs and tobacco (Baniya), capitals from Rs. 100 to Rs. 200. 11 Baldiya Beparis who keep cattle and deal in grain, etc. 125 Retailers of provisions and drugs (Modi or Baniya, Bepari or Pasari), capitals from Rs. 10 to Rs. 50. 1 Person who exports timber, fuel, wooden posts and bamboos, etc. (Kathaiya Mahajan), capital Rs. 150. 200 Farmers who deal in same, capitals from Rs. 5 to Rs. 20, 50 Strange Dealers (Baldiya-Beparis) who come in the dry season from Behar and Mungger and reside here about 8 months when they export grain by their cattle, capitals from Rs. 100 to Rs. 300. 4 Retailers of betel-leaf (Tambuli), capitals from Rs. 4 1 Retailer of Capsicum, etc. (Khattik), capital Rs. 5. 1 Retailer of Hemp Buds (Gangjawaleh). MARKETPLACES. 11 Dealers in salt, grain, cotton cloths, etc. (Bepari or Goldar). 11 Baldiya Beparis who keep cattle and deal in grain, etc. 8 Retailers of provisions and drugs (Khichri furosh). 3 Retailers of sweetmeats (Halwai). 3 Retailers of oil (Taili). 2 Retailers of betel-leaf (Tambuli). 2 Retailers of potters ware (Kumar). 15 Goyalas, who retail curdled milk, etc. 1 Mali, or seller of garlands and flowers. Martin has extracted the names of Thanas and marketplaces from the Indexes to the Maps of Bhagalpur and Patna (Vol. II, Appendix, page 8, and Vol. I, Appendix, page 54), but has omitted the corresponding list referring to the Map of Shahabad. He has also summarised in a separate Appendix (Vol. I, Appendix, pages 35-38) the statistics regarding the number of "artists" and the nature of their occupations in the city of Patna and in the various districts of Bihar, but has only given the distribution by thanas, and not by individual towns or hats. He has omitted the corresponding lists of traders and the nature of their trades. The value of Buchanan's maps would have been considerably enhanced if they had been reproduced on a somewhat larger scale, such as that of eight miles to an 2 2 Res. J. inch adopted in the most recent Gazetteers; because it would then have been possible not only to retain all the information which they include, but also to add the names of the hills, and to substitute the actual names of Thanas and market places for numerals, thus rendering the maps independent of their indexes. Had this course been adopted in 1838, when they were copied by J. & C. Walker for Martin's Eastern India, the extent of Buchanan's contributions to geographical knowledge, as compared with the Bengal Atlas, would have been clearly recognized; but unfortunately a different course was adopted. In order to conform to the size of the printed pages in these volumes, the scale of the maps was reduced to one of about 25 miles to the inch in that of Bhagalpur, and 214 miles to the inch in those of Patna and Shahabad. The omissions thus rendered inevitable have greatly impaired their value. The only features which have been reproduced just as Buchanan drew them are the boundaries of the thanas and the courses of the rivers and tributaries. None of the hills have been shown, and nearly all the names of rivers, etc., have been omitted. The names of thanas, and of some of the market places in each thana, have been transferred to the maps by using the key given in the Indexes, but in choosing place-names, the space available for their insertion rather than the relative importance of the places themselves has been the dominant consideration. The Bhagalpur map, over which Buchanan had taken special pains as the extract already quoted shows, is the one which has suffered most-not only by the reduction of its scale, but also by the absence of proper editing. No less than 163 out of 186 names of rivers and tributaries and 104 out of 181 names of places have been left out. The town of Bhagalpur itself is shown merely as "Kotwali", Monghyr as "Barabazar and Rajmahal as "Neyamutullah Khan", these being the names of the bazars in each of the towns which occur first in the lists given in the Index. The map of Patna in "Fastern India" is on the whole less unsatisfactory, although 60 out of 79 names of rivers, etc., and 155 out of 236 names of places have been left out. Even amongst those inserted there are several mistakes, such as "Rasisa" instead of Buchanan's Bahadurganj (one mile east of Ghosrawan), while his "Kazi Fatehchuk " (Kazi Chak, six miles north of Sheikhpura) has been inserted twice over, once in its proper place though spelt "Hazefutechuk", and once as "Hazi Futehchuk" instead of his "Chauyari" (Chewara, six miles south-east of Sheikhpura). Notwithstanding the absence of any reliable maps, it will be noticed that all the distances recorded in the Journal are set down with scrupulous accuracy, as even fractions of a mile are not omitted. It is quite clear that during each day's journey Buchanan only walked when his road became too bad for any other means of transport, or when the nature of the locality required close examination. Though he seldom specifies his actual means of conveyance, he usually travelled either on an elephant or in a palanquin. His method of estimating distances is not stated anywhere in so many words, and the only indications of it which occur in the Patna-Gaya Journal are the following: -- "My watch having stopt by the way, I cannot judge of the distance, which is called four coses." (November 19th, 1811.) "My watch now goes so ill that I cannot rely in computing (November 30th, 1811.) distances by it. The necessary clues are however contained in the Bhagalpur Journal of the previous year. On the 6th December 1810, at the end of his account of a march from Gunpura to Narayanpur, a distance of "about eight coses by the direct road, that I came through the copse", and in which the total of the individual distances recorded comes to between 15 and 16 miles, he says "I took four hours to go it on a good elephant". On the 5th and 6th March 1811, when he was on a particularly bad road and was almost certainly travelling by palanquin, against each of the distances recorded in the body of the Journal he has inserted a marginal entry |