James Tod

Lieutenant Colonel James Tod
by C. D. Blunt-Mackenzie

Lieutenant-Colonel^[1] James Tod (1782-1835), a British officer, historian of Rajasthan and numismatist, was born on March 20 1782. He went to India as a cadet in the Bengal army of the British East India Company in 1799. He commanded the escort attached to the resident with Sindhia from 1812 to 1817. In the latter year he was in charge of the Intelligence Department which largely contributed to the break up of the Maratha Confederacy in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, and was of great assistance in the campaign in Rajputana. In 1818 he was appointed political agent for the states of western Rajputana, where he conciliated the chieftains and settled their mutual feuds.

Historian

While resident in Rajputana, Tod collected materials for his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan^[2], a work of great importance for South Asian scholars. At the dawn of archaeological and historical study of India, Tod presents the contemporary geography and a detailed history of Rajputana along with the history of the Rajput clans who ruled most of the area at that time. Tod's work drew on local archives, Rajput traditional sources, and monuments such as the Edicts of Asoka found at Junagadh.

Tod described his procedure:

Being desirous of epitomising the chronicles of the martial races [sic] of Central and Western India, it was essential to ascertain the sources whence they draw, or claim to draw, their lineage. For this purpose I obtained from the library of the Rana of Oodipoor Udaipur their sacred volumes, the Pooráns, and laid them before a body of pundhits, over whom presided the learned Jetty Gyanchandra. From these extracts were made of all the genealogies of the great races [sic] of Soorya and Chandra, and of facts historical and geographical^[3].

Tod returned to England in 1823 with a wealth of material for his foundational study of Rajast'han's historical development.

Another book, Travels in Western India, appeared in 1839^[4]. Tod's work benefited from the emendations of Maharaj Kumar Dr. Raghubir Sinh of Sitamau who carefully identified the sites and persons Tod mentioned and corrected, clarified and threw further light on the places and events mentioned in the text. Tod's statements had been based on the information personally gathered by him from individuals, inscriptions, historical works and legends. Useful appendices present translations of key texts and an anonymous memoir of Tod.^[5]

Numismatist

An amateur numismatist, Tod is known for having discovered the first specimens of Bactrian and Indo-Greek coins from the Hellenistic period following the conquests of Alexander the Great, which were described in his books. These ancient kingdoms had been largely forgotten or considered semi-legendary by posterity, but Tod's findings confirmed the long term Greek presence in Afghanistan and Punjab. The coins have since been found in large quantities and are highly renowned for their artistic qualities.

On 10 Nov. 1820 Tod married the daughter of Dr. Clutterbuck, a London physician, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. Tod died September 17, 1835^[6].

References

1. ^ Significant Scots: James Tod (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
2. ^ James Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India, v. 1, p. 17. 2 vols. London, Smith, Elder (1829, 1832); New Delhi, Munshiram Publishers, (2001) ISBN 8170691281
3. ^ Tod, Annals, 1:17. However, Tod notes in his introduction (esp. xv–xviii) the utility of bardic poetry and temple inscriptions in compiling Indian history. Quoted, Pinch, William R. Peasants and Monks in British India. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1996 1996.
4. ^ James Tod, Travels in Western India, Embracing a visit to the sacred mounts of the Jains, and the most celebrated shrines of Hindu Faith between Rajputana and the Indus; with an account of the ancient city of Nehrwalla (1839); Coronet (1997) ISBN 8121507677
5. ^ Vedam's Books
6. ^ Stephen Wheeler, "Tod, James", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, London, Smith Elder (1898), p. 425.

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Further Reading

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha Suprasiddha itihaskara Karnala James Toda ka jivana caritra , Rajasthani Granthagara, Jodhpur 2002.
• C. A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870, Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN 0521663601

Donate to Wikimedia