3 Review(s)

The present volume contains the complete Buchanan-Hamilton’s Report on the district of Purnea with tables that seem of permanent value, though it was not published by Robert Montgomery Martin. From the data compiled by him, it is possible to compute the total population, and also the share of the population dependent on secondary industries around the years 1809-13 in the tracts designated as Bhagalpur, Patna-Gaya, Purnea, and Shahabad by Buchanan-Hamilton himself, making up what may be known as the Gangetic Bihar in modern-day India. The noticeable feature of this district is the extent of uncultivated land, which spreads out from the vicinity of the town of Purnea, chiefly to the north and west, in the form of radiating stretches of land, opening out occasionally into fine, grassy, prairie-like plains.