Tod, James
Travels in Western India
£1,386
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 28 September 2022 from 10:00 BST
Description
embracing a Visit to the Sacred Mounts of the Jains, and the most Celebrated Shrines of Hindu Faith. London: Wm. H. Allen and Co., 1839. First edition, 4to (30.2 x 23.2cm), contemporary half calf, rebacked and relined, lx 518 [2] pp., 9 plates (one lithographic, the rest engraved), half-title discarded, frontispiece partly detached, text-leaves browned and rather brittle, a few resulting chips and tears to margins including a closed tear extending into text in I4, marginal repairs to plate facing p. 155 and text-leaf 2F3, errata leaf backed on linen
Footnote
Note: Uncommon. James Tod was an East India Company army and political officer who, in 1818, 'after the chiefs of Rajputana had accepted the protective alliance offered to them ... was appointed by the governor-general political agent in the western Rajput states, and was so successful in his efforts to restore peace and confidence that within less than a year some 300 deserted towns and villages were repeopled, trade revived, and, in spite of the abolition of transit duties and the reduction of frontier customs, the state revenue had reached an unprecedented amount. During the next five years Tod earned the respect of the chiefs and people, and was able to rescue more than one princely family, including that of the ranas of Udaipur, from the destitution to which they had been reduced by Maratha raiders' (ODNB). He died in 1835; the present account appeared posthumously.