An Account of the Districts of Shahabad in 1812-1813

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It is a matter of great satisfaction that the Reprints of much- demanded Buchanan's Reports are being published by the Department of Art, Culture & Youth, Bihar. In recent time, the Department has published a good number of books, coffee-table books, monographs and so on. The present publication, it is hoped, would serve the needs of important academic and research pursuits.

Francis Buchanan (1762-1829) was a British scientific explorer and surveyor who observed and recorded flora and fauna, ecology, society and economy of Bengal, which at that time included Bihar as well. Qualified as a surgeon by profession, Buchanan was posted in Bengal in 1793. From 1807 Francis Buchanan began his most memorable venture by undertaking a study tour through Northern Bengal and Bihar. Historians, social and natural scientists draw heavily on the reports of Buchanan for the first hand information on Bengal and Bihar of his time.

The original manuscript copies of these accounts are housed in the Oriental and India Office Collection in the British Library, London. Soon after Buchanan's death, these accounts, in addition to an account of Assam, were edited and published by R. Montgomery Martin under the title History, Antiquities, Topography, and Statistics of Eastern India. Martin has since been roundly criticized by students of the Buchanan manuscripts for his random and rather indiscreet editorial cuts of valuable material while preparing the volumes for publication. It failed to give Buchanan enough explicit credit as the sole author of the work. This was salvaged to some extent by the publication of the original accounts of the Bihar districts by the Bihar and Orissa Research Society between 1928 and 1939.