An Account of the District of Shahabad in 1812-1813

Dr. Francis Buchanan (afterwards Hamilton) was one of the greatest Scotsmen who served the East India Company at the end of the eighteenth century, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Joining the Bengal Presidency in 1794 as an Assistant Surgeon, his exceptional aptitude for botanical, zoological, and other scientific research led to his employment on important missions to Burma, Mysore, and Nepal; and when, in 1807, the Court of Directors decided to have a ‘statistical survey’ of the then Bengal Presidency carried out, this gigantic task was assigned to him. For nearly eight years, he toiled incessantly, completing the survey of the Northern most Bengal districts (including parts of the Lower Assam) and the districts that now form the Bhagalpur and Patna divisions in Bihar and Orissa, as well as the present Gorakhpur district in the United Provinces, covering in all an area nearly as large as that of England. Some extracts from the voluminous manuscripts were printed from time- to- time across various journals, but it is most regrettable that no steps were taken by the Company to publish the whole under Buchanan’s own supervision while he was still alive.