View source for Rajasthan: Lt Col Tod's Surveys, 1829

[[Category:India |R ]]
[[Category:Places |R ]]
[[Category:Rajasthan |R]]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%">
This page is an extract from <br/>
ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES <br/>
OF <br/>
'''RAJASTHAN '''<br/>

OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN <br/>
RAJPUT STATES OF INDIA <br/>

By <br/>
LIEUT.-COL. JAMES TOD <br/>
Late Political Agent to the Western Rajput States <br/>

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by <br/>
WILLIAM CROOKE, CIE. <br/>
Hon. D.Sc. Oxon., B.A., F.R.A.l. <br/>
Late of the Indian Civil Service <br/>

In Three Volumes <br/>
VOL.I: GEOGRAPHY OF RAJASTHAN OR RAJPUTANA<br/>
[The Annals were completed in 1829]<br/>

HUMPHREY MILFORD <br/>
Oxford University Press <br/>
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York <br/>
Toronto Melbourne Bombay <br/>
1920 [The edition scanned] <br/>
</div>
|}
Note: This article is likely to contain several spelling mistakes that occurred during scanning. If these errors are reported as messages to the Facebook page, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com] your help will be gratefully acknowledged.

=Rajasthan: The Author's Surveys.=

The route of the embassy was from 
Agra, through the southern frontier of Jaipur to Udaipur. A 
portion of this had been surveyed and points laid down from 
celestial observation, by Dr. W. Hunter, which I adopted as the 
basis of my enterprise. The Resident Envoy 1 to the court of 
Sindhia was possessed of the valuable sketch of the route of 
Colonel Palmer's embassy in 1791, as laid down by Dr. Hunter, the 
foundation of my subsequent  surveys, as it merited from its im-
portance and general accuracy. It embraced all the extreme 
points of Central India : Agra, Narwar, Datia, Jhansi, Bhopal, 
.Sarangpur, Ujjain, and on return from this, the first meridian of 
the Hindus, by Kotah; Bundi, Rampura (Tonk), Bayana, to 
Agra. The position of all these places was more or less accurately 
fixed, according to the time which could be bestowed, by astro-
nomical observation [4]. 

At Rampura Hunter ceased to be my guide : and from this 
point commenced the new survey of Udaipur; where we arrived 
in June 1806. The position then assigned to it, with most inade-
quate instruments, has been changed only 1 ' of longitude, though 
the latitude amounted to about 5'. 

From Udaipur the subsequent march of the army with which 
we moved led past the celebrated Chitor, and through the centre 
of Malwa, crossing in detail all the grand streams flowing from 
the Vindhya, till we halted for a season on the Bundelkhand 
frontier at Khimlasa. In this journey of seven hundred miles I 
twice crossed the lines of route of the former embassy, and was 
gratified to find my first attempts generally coincide with their 
established points. 

In 1807, the army having undertaken the siege of Rahatgarh, 
I determined to avail myself of the time which Mahrattas waste 
in such a process, and to pursue my favourite project. With a 
small guard I determined to push through untrodden fields, by 
tlte banks of the Betwa to Chanderi, and in its latitude proceed 
in a westerly direction towards Kotah, trace the course once more 
of all those streams from the south, and the points of junction 
of the most important (the Kali Sind, Parbati, and Ranas) with 
the Chambal ; and having effected this, continue my journey to 
Agra. This I accomplished in times very different from the 
1 My esteemed friend, Graeme Mercer, Esq. (of Maevisbank), who stimu-
lated my exertions with his approbation.
 
present, being often obliged to strike my tents and march at mid
night, and more than once the object of plunder.1  The chief 
points in this route were Khimlasa, Rajwara, Kotra on the Betwa, 
Kanyadana,2  Buradungar,3 Shahabad, Barah,4  Puleta,5  Baroda, 
Sheopur, Pali,6  Ranthambhor, Karauli, Sri Mathura, and Agra. 

On my return to the Mahratta camp I resolved further to 
increase the sphere, and proceeded westward by Bharatpur, 
Katumbar, Sentri, to Jaipur, Tonk, Indargarh, Gugal Chhapra, 
Raghugarh, Aron, Kurwai, Borasa, to Sagar : a journey of more 
than one thousand miles. I found the camp nearly where I left it. 

With this ambulatory court I moved everywhere within this 
region, constantly employed in surveying till 1812, when Sindhia's 
court became stationary. It was then I formed my plans for 
obtaining a knowledge of those countries into which I could not 
personally penetrate [5].