Imatges de pàgina
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GAZETTEER

FOR THE

HAIDARÁBÁD ASSIGNED DISTRICTS,

Commonly called BERÁR.

1870.

Edited by A. C. Lyall, Commissioner of West Berár.

Bombay:

PRINTED AT THE

EDUCATION SOCIETY'S PRESS, BYCULLA.

1870.

201. n

PREFACE.

In October 1867 the Government of India issued orders for the compilation of a Gazetteer of the Haidarábád Assigned Districts.

Toward the end of 1868 two Gazetteers had been sent in-one for Elichpúr district, by Captain Szczepanski; the other from Captain J. Bushby, for Wún district. In acknowledging receipt of this last Gazetteer the Resident thus laid out the plan upon which he desired the whole Gazetteer to be prepared for publication. The Reports for all the districts were to be first collected, and their respective merits submitted to general review, in order to "the classification and (if need "be) condensation of the information afforded-not only on one "consistent system, but also with regard to the proportions that "should be allotted to the several component parts of the whole work. "In this way tautology would be avoided."

These were the instructions according to which the work was to be edited. But though two out of the six District Gazetteers were sent up by the end of 1868, the other four had not, I believe, been even begun; and it was apparent that, what with the pressure of routine business, and the constant change of officers, the task of making out a Gazetteer pressed rather heavily upon Deputy Commissioners. Yet it was essential to work expeditiously, for much of the material which goes to form a Gazetteer will not keep. Figures, and even facts, vary from year to year; statistics become out of date; railways and famines revolutionize countries; territorial limits change; head-quarters are shifted; the compiler toils in vain after an energetic administration; and in Berár a turn of politics might leave him, before an exhaustive description were completed, with no British province to describe.

So the attempt to lay upon Deputy Commissioners the task of elaborating these Reports for their districts was abandoned, and instead they were asked to set about collecting materials to be arranged under a classification which was circulated for use. And the task was also shortened by withdrawing from this classified list those subjects which either demanded special knowledge (as geology), or comprehensive treatment for the entire province, as in the case of history.

The consequence of this alteration of the original method has been that a separate Gazetteer, complete in all its parts, for each district became impossible. Three out of the six Gazetteers at first contemplated were never written at all; while the rough material and

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