Page 227 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes
Earlier, a Gazetteer signified a geographical index or geographical dictionary or guidebook
of important places and people. But with the passage of time its range has vastly widened
and it had come to mean a veritable mine of knowledge about the numerous aspects of life
of the people and of the country or region they inhabit.

Some books of yore such as the work of Stephen of Byzantium of the 6th century AD.
Doomsday Book compiled for William the conqueror, Brihat-Samhita of Varaha Mihira,
Vayu Purana, Abdul Fazl’s Ain-I-Akbari are cited as having in them some resemblance to
elements of Gazetteers. But the system of Modern Gazetteer literature arose in Europe in
the wake of the new intellectual ferment brought about by the Renaissance and Industrial
Revolution. Germany and France led the way in this respect. The colonial British
administration in India took up military, revenue and statistical survey to help stabilize
its position in the country.

The earliest Gazetteers to appear in India were the East India Gazetteer in 1815 and the
Gazetteer of the territories under the Government of the East India Company in 1854
which were prepared by two private authors Walter Hamilton and Edward Thornton.
A few years later, by 1866, Richard Temple published the first official Gazetteer of the
Bhandara District of the central province. This set the pace and there appeared a number of
Gazetteer volumes for the various parts of the country.
For the princely state of Mysore and Coorg, B.L. Rice published three volumes in 1877–78.
They presented remarkable studies and served as a model. He revised the two volumes
twenty years later. The subjects dealt were physical geography, flora including crops and
cultivation, fauna, ethnography, history, religion, language, art and industry,
administration, particulars of districts and important places, and they had maps and pictures.
For the districts of Bombay and Madras Provinces, Gazetteers were brought out between
the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of 20th century. In fact B. L. Rice has
himself recorded in his preface to the Vol. I of Mysore and Coorg Gazetteer that the first
Gazetteer for Mysore was compiled by Arthur Wellesley in 1867 and later K. Krishna
Iyengar compiled and edited the Kolar District Gazetteer in 1869 which was the pioneering
publication in this series. He further records that manuscripts were prepared for Tumkur
District by Major C. Pearse, for Chitradurga district by Mr. Krishna Rao. Hassan by Major
W Hill and Shimoga by Captain Gordon Cumming were compiled and edited but never
published.
In the meanwhile the first edition of the Imperial gazetteer of India was published in nine
volumes in 1881 under Sir. William Hunter. It was augmented to 14 volumes in 1885-87
and to 26 volumes in 1907-1909 when a provincial series was also issued. Likewise B.L.
Rice had done a splendid job for Mysore and his work was extolled by Sir. William Hunter
as “better than anything he himself had been able to do even for Bengal”. The third decade
of 20th century saw the publication of the Mysore Gazetteer in eight books under the
editorship of Sri Hayavadana Rao and these also kept up a high standard. Later there were
supplements issued for South Kanara and Bellary also.
For meeting the altogether changed national requirements there were immense need for
preparation and publication of new Indian Gazetteers. Some of the States like the former
Bombay and Madras, Bihar and Rajasthan undertook this work between 1949 and 1957,
and others including Karnataka took up the task later according to an all-India plan
formulated by the Central Government for preparation of the Gazetteers on reoriented
lines on the basis of new knowledge, with uniformity of form and contents, but providing
for variations and additions to meet local or special needs. This is a monumental task of
immense complexity and magnitude and has to be carried out with patient labour,
circumspection and thoroughness.
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